Did Aishwarya Rai get IVF done for a baby boy? Should we care?

It was the most high profile and talked about wedding of Bollywood in recent times, the beauty queen of the world, Aishwarya Rai, and the swashbuckling, superstar Amitabh Bachchan's son, Abhishek.Ever since 2007, all Bollywood fans have been waiting anxiously for the star couples children. And now that the couple is expecting their first baby, the guessing game of whether Aishwarya went in for IVF (invitro fertilization or test tube baby) at Thailand, whether for reasons of inability to conceive or for sex selection to have a baby boy, to ensure that the Bachchan 'khandan' has a male heir has reached a frenzy. Millions and billions of words, whether in the print or in the electronic media have already been written and printed, and now that the D- Day is very close, the news hungry paparazzi has reached its fever pitch.

Ever since the news of Aishwarya's pregnancy was announced, the rumors of whether Aishwarya had gone to Bangkok for IVF abounded. Every two-bit starlet, looking for her 30 minutes of fame was giving her personal opinion on the matter.Wannabe starlet Bhairavi posts read:

"Nauseating 2 read superstars givig interviews abt wanting a girl baby whn she has gone 2 Bangkok to an IVF clinic which specializes in boy babies. Height of hypocrisy. They knw damn well its a boy, aftr all she has to produce a male heir at any cost - Typical UP mentality, no wonder that state has such high female foeticide (sic)"

It appeared that the unknown actress was trying to get her two inches of print fame. How would Ms Goswani know that Aishwarya and Abhishek have consulted an IVF Clinic in Bangkok? And why is it anybody's business to want to know how the baby was conceived. Even if Abhishek and Aishwarya had used some IVF clinic's services in Bangkok, there is no way to know they went for gender selection. The accusation made by Bhairavi Goswami has created a lot of buzz and negativity. The media are accusing the Bachchans of discrimination, they have not forgotten Aishwarya's first wedding to a Banyan tree, to avert some vague, possible threat to Abhishek's life. Every word said by Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan is being debated endlessly on Internet forums to prove a point or another.

Not only the accusation may be wrong and extremely insensitive, it leaves a bad taste. Tomorrow the media will ask, is baby is Bachchan's? Why cant we leave someone's personal matters as personal?

Many celebrities chose IVF, for various reasons. Famous Indian film director and choreographer, Farah Khan, apparently chose IVF to start a family at the age of forty-three, and gave birth to triplets: son, Czar, and two daughters, Diva and Anya. Sanjay Dutt's second wife, Manyata, was in the news in 2010 after her pregnancy news broke out. If rumors are to be believed then, she too conceived through IVF and gave birth to twins, boy: Shahraan and girl: Iqra. Quite a few Hollywood actresses have gone in for IVF to have their babies - Emma Thompson, Courtney Cox and Celine Dion. Even actresses like Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lopez have reportedly gone in for IVF.

In today's life - women keep putting off becoming a mother till late in life due to a career or otherwise, and may finally resort to IVF to have their baby. So - why fault Aishwarya if she has indeed gone to an IVF clinic in Bangkok to get her baby? These days, as soon as it gets known that an actor in her late thirties is pregnant, the rumour mills have a field day, speculating about the possibility of the pregnancy being a result of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), a process in which the ladies eggs are fertilised by the husband's sperm outside a woman's body. It's well known that IVF is an option not only for infertile couples but also for those who choose to delay having a baby. But the fact is that women can get pregnant naturally even in their late thirties and forties, so just the fact that an actor is pushing forty should not set tongues wagging.

IVF is a procedure that is path breaking and revolutionary, its contribution to the help of infertile couples in having a baby was considered significant enough to award the Nobel Prize for Medicine to its creator, Dr. Robert Edward. Alas, the way IVF has been portrayed by the media is enough to make many deserving couples shun it for fear of some unknown social stigma, but how would the tabloids survive without their obsession with the beauty queens.