| In May, 2009, I wrote an article about a sixty-six | | | | be cancer; not war, disease or criminal wrongdoing. I |
| year old British woman, Elizabeth Munro, who was | | | | wonder what Ms Bousada would say now if she |
| due to give birth to her first child, conceived in a | | | | could. Would she still believe that her rights were |
| Ukraine fertility clinic through IVF. At the time, I | | | | paramount to the children's interests? |
| weighed the rights of a healthy woman to do as she | | | | More and more, we are hearing of instances in which |
| pleased with her body against the best interests of a | | | | an individual's desire to be a parent is pitted against |
| child born to a mother of advanced age and admitted | | | | government regulation. Some of these stories truly |
| my own discomfort with the idea of a woman of | | | | pull at the public's heart-strings; such as Briton Michelle |
| pensioner's age, being pregnant. In the end, I | | | | Hickman, who faces having her frozen embryos |
| concluded that it really was none of our business and | | | | destroyed when a five-year storage limit lapses soon. |
| we should allow Mrs. Munro and her baby their | | | | In her case, a medically necessary hysterectomy |
| privacy, partially because it seemed like an anomaly. I | | | | forced her and her husband to produce the embryos |
| wanted to believe that she might be like a Wonder | | | | by IVF, with the plan to use a surrogate to carry |
| Woman; capable of bouncing back from childbirth | | | | them to term. They currently have two children, one |
| with the energy I wish I had had when I gave birth | | | | of whom was born through surrogacy, and would like |
| to my second child at forty-two. | | | | to have two more. Whose interests would be served |
| Well, here we go again, with two news reports in as | | | | by destroying the ability of 36 year old Ms Hickman |
| many days of another British woman, identified as 72 | | | | and her 37 year old husband, Martin Hymers, to have |
| year-old Jenny Brown, trying to become pregnant, | | | | additional children? If they are young, healthy, |
| and a Spanish single mother, 69 year old Maria del | | | | financially fit, willing and able to care for a large family, |
| Carmen Bousada who died on Saturday July 11th, | | | | why shouldn't they be given every chance? |
| leaving two-year old twins orphaned. Could it be that | | | | Situations like the one facing Ms Hickman often make |
| what seemed an anomaly is actually a trend? It | | | | people shake their heads at the unfairness of |
| boggles the mind to realize that other women feel | | | | government intrusion into what they regard as |
| encouraged and justified to do the same as Mrs. | | | | natural rights. To others, parenthood is less a right |
| Munro, but at an even more advanced age. Some will | | | | than a privilege. Many more will debate the ethics of |
| apparently lie to their doctors, travel the globe and | | | | people putting their own desires before the best |
| commit huge sums of money to their quest for | | | | interests of the children they want to create. As we |
| motherhood. The Evening Standard reported that | | | | advance into the modern age of medicine and more |
| "Londoner Jenny Brown has travelled to the US and | | | | unusual means of pregnancy and childbirth become |
| Italy" and has spent £30,000 on six courses of | | | | physically possible, the government has to alter its |
| IVF thus far. She intends to continue trying to | | | | regulations to respond accordingly, and it does, |
| conceive, even if that means going to Bulgaria, | | | | eventually. But even so, are we ready to throw a |
| Romania, Spain and India for treatment. The article | | | | baby shower for a septuagenarian "new mom?" |
| gives no more details, such as whether Ms Brown is | | | | What will Jenny Brown be able to give to her child, if |
| married, in good health, or has a plan for the physical | | | | indeed she does become pregnant at the age of |
| and emotional care and financial support of a child if | | | | seventy-two? I am not questioning her ability to |
| she should die when it is still a minor, i.e. before she is | | | | provide her child with love, a home and possibly, |
| 90 years old. | | | | enough money to raise him/her to adulthood. I do |
| Meanwhile, the news report by on Ms Bousada's | | | | wonder, though, how much will she be able to |
| death in Cadiz, Spain fuels the debate over these | | | | participate in her child's life as he grows? Will she join |
| geriatric pregnancies and births. In various interviews, | | | | Mommy-and-Me classes, go on Teddy Bear Picnics, |
| she told reporters that "everyone should become a | | | | jump up and sprint to pick him up when he falls off |
| mother at the right time for them." She had sold her | | | | the climbing frame, help with homework, fight off the |
| house to achieve her dream. Apparently, all three of | | | | colds and viruses he brings home from school, |
| the women mentioned here take the view that | | | | chauffeur him around to play-dates, sports clubs and |
| motherhood is all about their rights. I'm not saying | | | | proms, relate to him at all regarding music, clothes, |
| that the rights of their children are completely | | | | hairstyles, choice of language or taste in girls? Will she |
| disregarded, however, the death of Ms Bousada | | | | be able to guide her child through GCSE's, celebrate A |
| illustrates one of the reasons that fertility specialists | | | | Level results, swell with pride over a first job or cry |
| in the UK will not take on patients at their ages. We | | | | with joy over an engagement? It seems unlikely. |
| don't know what arrangements she has made for | | | | Even more unlikely is the child's ability to appreciate |
| her twins, but regardless of the quality of their care, | | | | and assist an elderly mother's lessening mobility, failing |
| it is tragic that they have been separated by death | | | | health or financial need. Whereas some people may |
| from their natural mother at less than three years | | | | have swallowed hard to accept Elizabeth Munro's |
| old. Nothing can make up for their loss, made worse | | | | childbirth at 66, I think we will find Jenny Brown's age |
| by the fact that their paternity appears to be | | | | of 72 may be pushing the boundaries a little too far |
| unknown. The cause of death has been reported to | | | | to gain public support. |