Mulanje District Hospital

One patient after another coming with a history of dead children and now infertility. Wanting to conceive. HIV positive. Some on ARV treatment, others newly diagnosed. And with no CD4 cell counter, until they get sick enough (WHO class III or IV), they will not be eligible.

I am sort of at a loss here. On one hand I want to say, you have had three children die of AIDS; your own lifespan is already limited, and the country is littered with AIDS orphans. Why do you want to make more?

On the other hand, I want to congratulate her for being alive and hopeful enough to want a baby.

And the third point of view, the one that counts, is that this life is hers, and this decision is none of my damn business.