BBC: 'World's oldest mum' raps critics

[KDLarsen]

A 66-year-old Romanian woman thought to be the oldest recorded mother has dismissed concerns that she was too old and frail to bring up a child.

Adriana Iliescu, who underwent fertility treatment for nine years, spoke at a Bucharest hospital 48 hours after giving birth to a baby girl.

"Each person has a mission in life, and may be this was my mission," she said.

<snip>

"If this child is born, it is also by the will of God," Mrs Iliescu said at a news conference at the Giulesti Maternity Hospital.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4186405.stm

[Darth_Kitten]

1. didn't she get donated egg and sperm??....

my guess is, why not adopt then lady? :shrug: God knows there are plenty of kids who need good homes.

Nine years of fertility treatments?

[NorthernSpy]

2. probably because she wanted to have her own child -- (no, wait!)

my guess is, why not adopt then lady? God knows there are plenty of kids who need good homes.

Nine years of fertility treatments?

And my guess is that she simply wanted to have her own child, which is actually pretty understandable.

My worry is that 67 does seem to be mighty late in life to become a mother. Usually, we expect that a son or daughter will be well into middle age by the time a parent dies; parental death will probably come a lot earlier in the kid's life in this case. Which doesn't seem an especially good thing...

On the other hand, there are already plenty of children who lose their parents at a young age and who are then brought up by their grandparents -- so some of the same issues already exist in that context. With an extended family to help out, I guess it could work.

On edit -- donated egg and sperm! Yikes!

The article didn't mention this element, but if that was the case (and still having fertile ova at age 66 would be pretty unlikely) then the baby produced isn't really her own child, and "the will of God" -- which she claims -- had nuthin to do with it.

This is what happens when elements of the human body are made into commodities for the purchasing.

So yeah -- I'm ag'in it. :mad:

And how 'bout that picture on the BBC site... she looks a good twenty years older than any 66 year old I've ever seen. :think:

[NorthernSpy]

3. yup, donor egg and frozen pop...

When I first glanced over the Iliescu story, I figured that "took fertility treatments" meant she'd had a course of pills or injections or something, and managed to conceive her own child against the odds. And I figured that if her body was capable of reproduction -- albeit aided somewhat by science -- then, well, okay. Apparently, about .2 percent of women who've entered their fifties do still have fertile eggs. But apparently, Iliescu ain't one of those women, and ultimately she bought ova and had them fertilized in the lab:

http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,66322,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2

And then she incubated her little genetic stranger to a three-pound immaturity. Then the C-section. I think the kid's still in the hospital.

I wonder whether the woman whose ova she used would ever have imagined that something like this would happen...


:(

[bleedingheart]

4. I think this is absolutely moronic

but that is my opinion.

My parents were 37 and 50 when I was born (mom was about to turn 38)..and 38-51 when my brother came along and my mom has stated that having toddlers in your 40's isn't a picnic.
(She had had her first at 24 and there was a 13 year gap and a new husband before she had her second...so she knows the difference between raising kids while young and older) Did I mention that my dad died when I was 10...so mom raised us alone beyond that..

I have no problem with women/men seeking fertility treatments or having kids well into the 40's...but for crying out loud if you look at the obits in the paper...people start dropping off in their mid 70's... so does this woman have someone else to raise this child in case she doesn't live long enough?

What if she starts getting dementia? Does she think that in her early 80's she will be able to handle a willful teenager?

[Pert_UK]

5. If she can rap, surely she's the world's oldest mutha.....but seriously...

I heard about this this morning and it's a disgrace.

The sad thing, of course, is that she probably couldn't have adopted at this late age and as a single parent so this really did represent her only option.

Having said that, it's offensively selfish IMHO and the doctor should be struck off - he really came across as a smug wanker in an interview I heard with him and even had the cheek to claim that the woman's 3lb daughter looks like her despite no genetic link...maybe he just meant "wrinkly"....

The best case scenario would be that she dies when her child is about 20, and that's not really a very good or likely outcome. Also, she kept rattling on about how she wants her daughter to inherit her, "spirituality" and "intellect"....sounds like she's a bit up her own arse to me....

"She added that "concern about the coming days is unjustified" because "nobody can predict the future". " Well duh...but does that mean we should all just blindly ignore the huge probability that this kid is going to be an orphan within 15 years?

My guess - a baby with a whole lot of nightmares: