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70 year old has baby after ICSI treatment

80 replies

georgimama · 08/12/2008 16:05

what do we think about this then? I'm thinking not to be encouraged (and I know this would not be allowed in the UK), although I have immense sympathy and it probably is true that they have a huge estended family to help out...

OP posts:
andiem · 09/12/2008 12:05

I think it is irresponsible to have a child at that age do I begrudge them the happiness no but I would worry about the child's future and their ability to care for the child

kittywise · 09/12/2008 12:48

It's quite bizare to have any argument against this woman on the grounds that it is "unnatural". For a woman of her age to have a baby. Well yes it is, it is also unnatural for any infertile woman of any age to have a baby.

If you haven't got eggs then you shouldn't have a baby?

ANY assisted conception is unnatural. Any couple that need donor egg ,ivf, whatever shouldn't do it then if anyone is going to take the stance that it goes against nature.

A huge number of babies are born to women ONLY because of humans going against nature.

devoutsceptic,I think you need to be more aware of your own mortality!

Im not that interested in statistics tbh, tomorrow could be my last and yours too, you don't know. What matters is that your give your child a good life whilst you're around, be it 1 year, 10 years or God willing many, many years.

Would you deny this child its life then because the mother is 'too old'? I don't like that really way of thinking.

So the child shouldnt be born?

donnie · 09/12/2008 14:05

errr....exactly how is that 'the religious argument' stitch?

ladytophamhatt · 09/12/2008 14:15

After reading the article I can't help feeling abit happy for them.
55 yrs is a looooooooong time to feel broody!

I do agree its wrong though...

offtoseethewizard · 09/12/2008 17:04

MMJ can you tell me your source that at 60 85% of sperm is abnormal. DCs dad is now 67, they are 4 and 2 - no abnormailities, straight forward pregnancys, pregnant both times within 3 months, and also another friend has fathered a child at 62 - no probs!

offtoseethewizard · 09/12/2008 17:08

Oh - and what about Charlie Chaplin, Des O Connor, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, John Humphries, David Jason only mentioned these because they are in the news. The number of men fathering children in their 60s and beyond each year is in the thousands. So why all the fuss about a woman? unless you disagree with fertility treatments per se.

devoutsceptic · 09/12/2008 18:41

The thing that is different about men naturally fathering children in old age is that nature ensures that an old man can't father a child with an old woman - the mother has to be younger, so the child is guaranteed to have ONE parent who is likely to be around to see the child into adulthood.

offtoseethewizard · 09/12/2008 18:52

But devout 'nature' also ensures that some young men cannot father children and some young women are infertile - does that mean they should not seek intervention because it goes against 'nature'. Also, no child is 'guaranteed' to have parents seeing them into adulthood but indeed, many older fathers do see their children into their 20s and beyond. I lost my dad at 11, he was 42.

juuule · 09/12/2008 18:54

That makes no sense, devout. If a younger man fathered a child with an older woman then the child would still have one parent likely to be around to see the child into adulthood.

devoutsceptic · 09/12/2008 18:56

Yes, but that can't happen naturally, and I've never seen it done with fertility treatment either. All the cases of old women having babies I've ever seen involve them doing so alone or with an equally old partner.

devoutsceptic · 09/12/2008 18:57

I have said nothing about anything being against nature Offtosee - I think you are mixing me up with someone else.

offtoseethewizard · 09/12/2008 19:12

OK, I will concede that this scenario is not ideal for the child (but many children are born into less than 'ideal' families - who don't get judged as much as 'old' people). What riled me was the language 'disgusting' and the implication that by beautiful dds were made from 'deformed sperm' (MMJ)

juuule · 09/12/2008 19:24

While it doesn't happen naturally, I still don't follow your logic that nature makes older women infertile just to ensure "that an old man can't father a child with an old woman".
It could just as easily have been the other way around.
Are you saying that it's just bad luck on women's part that they became the older, infertile gender? (I know some might think it was good luck)

offtoseethewizard · 09/12/2008 19:41

'my beautiful dcs' that should read and it was 'abnormal' sperm not 'deformed' sorry

kittywise · 09/12/2008 19:56

There has been some really vile language from the terribly self-righteous on this thread. People who believe they have good cause to judge whether someone has the right to have a child.

oftoseethewizard, I am not surpirsed that you are upset

devoutsceptic · 09/12/2008 22:01

It's just a fact Juule. The natural discrepancy between fertility in men and women means that if an older man wants to have a baby, he has to do it with a younger woman. We are born with all our eggs, we don't make any more and they deteriorate and run out. Sperm is made totally differently. Of course evolution would not favour offspring being born to two people that were not able to nurture them to independence.
I think it is wrong for two people in their seventies to create a baby.

morningpaper · 09/12/2008 22:05

Bit shocked at the horror on here

Lots of people who CAN'T have babies have babies through IVF

Lots of people who MIGHT DIE SOON have babies - terminally ill people

Lots of old men have babies!

Who would begrudge any of them?

"Un-natural" - well, by that argument, so are gay relationships

so what?

devoutsceptic · 09/12/2008 22:08

I would think it rather selfish if TWO people who knew they were terminally ill had a baby, to be honest. Surely most of us think it is important for at least one parent to be alive long enough to raise our children ?

Pawslikepaddington · 09/12/2008 22:08

They do look very happy, and if they are in a large extended family then the child won't be alone when it's parents die, but it is a bit sad knowing you will probably lose both your parents before you are out of your teens-it is hard enough without losing your parents too.

morningpaper · 09/12/2008 22:13

hmm I believe there are some countries where life expectancy is around late thirties/early forties - I assume they should all stop breeding pronto?

shopaholicDIVA · 09/12/2008 22:15

very selfish, but where im from people had children in 70s 80s mostly by old father not mother though.

juuule · 10/12/2008 08:01

I know the facts, devout.
So, am I right in thinking that your objection to this couple is that both of them are old?
You would have been okay with the woman having icsi treatment if the man had been a lot younger?

kittywise · 10/12/2008 10:45

That's a good point MP, so no poor people in third world countries should be having kids then?

Blimey devout you come across as quite a fascist. Who else in you opinion shouldn't be allowed to have children?

Amani · 10/12/2008 11:05

What were the doctors thinking when they decided to give the fetility treatment to her? Sorry but dont agree with it. Given my experience with older people, I dont think they are capable looking after a young baby - but hey prove me wrong!

juuule · 10/12/2008 11:22

Amani - you don't know this particular couple and how capable or not they are.