Posted on 01/16/2005 10:52:10 AM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
BUCHAREST (AFP) - A 67-year-old Romanian became the oldest woman ever known to have given birth, although one of her twin girls died shortly afterwards, Bucharest's Giulesti Hospital told a TV station.
Adriana Iliescu, a retired university professor, had undergone fertility treatment for nine years before succeeding in becoming pregnant.
Realitatea TV said she had given birth to twin girls, one of whom had died almost immediately. The surviving infant, which weighed 1.4 kilogram (three pounds), was in good health, the TV channel said.
The previous record was held by an Italian woman who gave birth to a baby boy at the age of 62. Doctors had implanted the egg of a young Italian woman which had been fertlized by her husband's sperm.
Doctors who handled the Iliescu pregnancy maintained total secrecy about the case, which became known to the Romanian public only from one exclusive interview Iliescu gave on the Realitatea television channel last month.
In the appearance, filmed in a hospital whose identity and location were not divulged, the retired professor said she had "not been able to resign myself to not having a child."
"I always dreamt of being a mother, and now I'm experiencing the happiest time of my life, waiting to bring my twin daughters into the world," the graying academic said with visible emotion.
Iliescu said she did not feel the effect of her relatively advanced years.
The case has sparked widespread controversy.
"She will be too old to see her children grow up," lamented the newspaper Cotidianul ahead of the birth, questioning the ethics of doctors who consented to her being artificially inseminated.
But the Church has adopted a conciliatory position.
"The Bible preaches love and procreation at whatever age," said the press office of Patriarch Bogdan Teleanu, head of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Lucia Cornea, a staff member of Romania's centre for assisted reproduction, does not agree: "It's a scandal," she said.
Gheorghe Borcean, head of the Romanian medical profession's ethics committee, meanwhile criticised the mystery that shrouded the case.
"A case of such prominence should require academic debates and not just one single television report," he complained.
He said the Iliescu experiment had been "very risky both for the mother and for the children."
"Furthermore the quality of the sperm used for conception is doubtful," he warned.
A new Romanian law on assisted reproduction will come into effect in the country on January 1, 2007, the date on which Romania hopes to join the European Union, Cornea says.
"This law, in line with European norms, is expected to include an age limit of around 50 years of age for Romanian women seeking artificial insemination," she notes.
I saw a report about this on Fox News. I can understand why they had to use artificial insemination.
This is obscene and frankly, is against what "nature" intended. She'll be dead before the child hits ten.
Well, that explains it.
What a selfish woman.
This is the ultimate in selfishness.
That is just not right...
Relatively advanced years? Sixty-seven?! Like h$ll, Willie, ask any woman who bore children in her twenties and then later in her forties how much more difficult it was. Ackey breaky body is more like it.
Grandma needs to line up some younger relatives to raise the girl after she's gone.
"Furthermore the quality of the sperm used for conception is doubtful," he warned.
They won't say who the father is, but unless he's an old geezer with naturally deteriorating sperm, it's a nasty comment on a younger father.:)
The poor Ob/Gyn that had to attend to this must have to be in couseling now after witnessing that.
Thanks for pointing that out.
IIRC, Sarah was not artificially inseminated.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Congratulations, Dad! I had my last at 38 and I can tell you, the first at 23 was a LOT easier!
Best of luck to you and Momma!
What child would want to grow up in a situation like this? I certainly hope she has made provision for someone else to care for the little one when she dies.
Bottles and diapers and sleepless nights at 67? So who is going to raise her child??
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