The Guardian's health editor, Sarah Boseley, writes about Patricia Rashbrook, 63, who is to become Britain's oldest mother after fertility treatment in Italy with the maverick scientist Severino Antinori. The pregnancy is likely to be controversial, Boseley notes:
In November 1997 there was an outcry over the birth of a son to 60-year-old Liz Buttle, who had lied to a fertility clinic in the UK about her age. She claimed to be 49 to qualify for treatment.
In January this year, more controversy broke over the birth of a daughter to 66-year-old Adriana Iliescu, a retired university professor in Romania, who said she had not previously had time to have a family. She is thought to be the world's oldest mother and received IVF from Romanian doctor Bogdan Marinescu. In India, teacher Satyabhma Mahapatra had a boy in 2003 when she was 65. She used an egg from her niece fertilised by her niece's husband.
Dr Rashbrook would not have been treated in the UK, where the authorities consider she is too old. Last week the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) warned against "fertility tourism" - couples seeking treatment abroad that is not permitted in Britain. Most clinics in the UK will not accept a woman over 45.
Josephine Quintavalle, from Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said today: "It is extremely difficult for a child to have a mother who is as old as a grandmother would be. It is just that consumer society that wants absolutely everything, and never stops to think that a child is not a product. She is being selfish and sometimes greater love is saying no."
In a statement issued today, Dr Rashbrook and her husband John Farrant said: "We [...] wish to emphasise that this has not been an endeavour undertaken lightly or without courage, that a great deal of thought has been given to planning and providing for the child's present and future well-being, medically, socially and materially, and that we will therefore welcome a return to an undisturbed family life, in order that the well-being of both mother and child may continue to be promoted."
Is 63 too old to have a child? Read Sarah Boseley's story in full here, and her comment on our COmment is free blog here, and have your say below.
