Fertility Road Issue 03

FERTILITY ROAD |
not forgotten
THE DIONNE QUINTUPLETS were five identical sisters
born on May 28, 1934, in Ontario, Canada. Emilie and Marie
shared an embryonic sac, as did Annette and Yvonne, while
Cecile shared one with a sixth foetus, which died. Curiously,
those paired together bonded closely post-birth.
But the story of the sisters is a sad one. Cecile died
after an epileptic seizure, aged 20, while 14 years later a
blood clot accounted for Marie.
Long before, when the quintuplets were just four
months old, the Canadian government, led by Mitchell
Hepburn, took custody of the children under the premise
that parents Oliva and Elzire were unfit to care for them.
This created outcry, particularly when the five girls
were courted for significant press interest, which in turn
provoked a flood of tourist interest. Between 1936 and
1943, almost three million people walked through the
observation gallery where the sisters were kept.
Custody was handed back to the parents in 1948,
and exactly 50 years later, the government reached
settlement with the three surviving sisters for what
was deemed exploitation of minors. Yvonne died in
2001, leaving remaining sisters Annette and Cecile.
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