Courtesy of the BBC News website today:
“A 16-year-old Argentine girl has given birth to female triplets – for the second time.
The girl, named only as Pamela, had her first set of female triplets aged 15, having first given birth to a son when she was just 14. All seven children were born prematurely but without any kind of fertility treatment. While doctors say the three newborns and their mother are well, the case has sparked debate across Argentina. In bars and cafes, as well as the letters pages of newspapers, there has been widespread criticism of Pamela’s alleged promiscuity.
Pamela’s family already receives help from the provincial authorities, which donated land and built them a house when the first set of triplets was born. Pamela’s mother, who cleans houses to support her daughter and rapidly increasing number of grandchildren, says they will now seek more assistance from the government for the new additions to the family. Some Argentines are arguing that perhaps what Pamela needs is more advice on contraception.”
No shit, Sherlock. The thing is, this story has only come to light due to the fact that she has been blessed with the gift of two sets of triplets. Had she only had single births each time we would have probably not heard anything about her, but it would still worry me that a 16 year old has just given birth to her third child. I have to confess to not knowing what the age of consent is in Argentina, but surely this is, to an extent, irrelevant – if the age of consent is 14, 16 or 18, a 16-year old has been pregnant each year for 3 years, and that to me is the most alarming point. Now please don’t think i’m having a pop at the Argentinians – I know that our sex-education system is far from perfect, and that is a personal bug-bear of mine, not just because of the teenagers that i teach. Worldwide, we appear to be returning to the dark-ages in terms of sex education, but I also think education in general should be doing more to help matters. Again, please do not think I am judging the many females that I went to school with who had children in their teens – I know their children are loved (planned or unplanned) and that for the majority of cases, their parents wouldn’t change things if they could. But you change so much i your teens, and often too your twenties. You are still finding out who you are, discovering your hopes and dreams. How is this 14 year-old going to do this with 7 children? Even with 3 children under 3 she’d be struggling. Of course, it’s a person’s choice if they want to have their children young, and enjoy your life once they are grown up, but I don’t think the youth of today are being shown the opportunities that are out their for them. The world is their oyster – if only we showed them that.
