MADRID, Spain (AP) -- A 67-year-old Spanish woman became the world's oldest mother after she gave birth to twins in the northern city of Barcelona on Saturday, a hospital official said.
The woman, whose identity has not been revealed by Sant Pau hospital, gave birth by Caesarian section on Saturday, having previously undergone in vitro fertilization in the United States.
See the complete article from CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/30/old.mom.ap/index.html
Just because we have we can do something does not mean we should do it.
The question I have is why would a doctor do the in-vitro fertilization unless it was for profit or to set a record for the Guinness book. This woman will be 80 when her twins hit their teens and if her life expectancy is normal, then she will be lucky to live that long. Who will care for them after she is gone? Why not adopt or volunteer at a child care place if you want children to play with. The doctor or hospital would seem to be in violation of the hippocratic oath if they are not to provide treatments which are pointless or harmful.
Excerpts from a draft version of the Hippocratic oath that the AMA proposed:
All doctors should observe the core values of the profession which center on the duty to help sick people and to avoid harm. I promise that my medical knowledge will be used to benefit people's health. They are my first concern.
I will not put personal profit or advancement above my duty to patients.
I will not provide treatments which are pointless or harmful or which an informed and competent patient refuses. everybody should get a chance to have their own baby. let god decide when the mother will die. i'm sure there are other people around who can take care of the baby if that happen too early.
you never heard of mother died while giving birth. well, all those kids grow up being nice people even without their mother around.
let's not judge others easily like that.
I agree with diverden. Think of the kid 5-10 years from now... it sounds like a case where the mother is thinking about herself only. If you really consider the child good, you can't get to a decision like this.
I think the doctor is wrong and the lady is crazy. With this information I can only say that this is a crazy world. I would like to know the reasons for them to do that. Being pregnant at 70 must be worst than hell.
I'm generally knackered with my two on the go & I'm in my 20s. I can't imagine twins in my 60s.
If nothing else, think of the life the child will have - I want to be here for my children as long as possible, this woman, by average life expectancy may die by the time her children are in their teens. What will that do to her children?
I'm half agree, but In the other side, I agree with badai
It's not a sin to have kid at that age, and neither of them are forced to do that [the lady, the doctors, or moreover the baby to be born by that old lady]
Maybe she wants to have a chance to have a child too, and she will live for a long time. We shouldn't judge her without knowing the whole situation. I do find it sad for the child if the mom dies but moms die all the time...
As long as the lady was a willing subject. I think this is how science is advanced. With willing participants, partaking in experiments to test the limits of medical ability.
Knowing they can accomplish this may lead to further discovery. Perhaps they will find something that links older less fertile physiology with younger infertile physiology. This is how science works.
I still don't think it should be the norm.
If that is 'how science works', then I don't want science.
Once again science shows what they can, but a lady of 70 years giving birth. Freeky!!
I hope that this isn't the wish of the lady, if it is so that i say: Lady You are nuts!!
That lady could have died with this pregnancy, her body must now be a complete mess. So i would suggest, keep yourself normal and don't start making baby's on any way if your body can't handle it.
Wow. Yeah, it seems like a sort of cruel thing to do. But then again, she probably already knows she may not make it past their teens and has arranged plans with a family member or something to care for them when she dies.
What is this business of "god deciding when the mother will die"? It's such hypocrisy... if you have the belief that everything is in god's hands, and people live and die by his will, then why did this woman have to use science and in vitro fertilisation to conceive? Surely, this is "god's" way of letting this woman know she shouldn't have children!!!
The problem of the matter is, especially in this field, technology has improved far more quickly in the last 200 years than humans have evolved.
Human bodies are not machines, they start to deteriorate & decay at some point. Technology is ultimately boundless, human bodies are not.
IMO, the doctor who authorised this pregnancy is ethically unsound and the geriatric is just plain selfish.
What the hell? This is getting bloody weird.
If I was 67, I'd be living it up in retirement and waiting for grandkids. Not popping out more of the little sprogs.
Some people's priorities are really whacked. 
On a different topic... poor bigdan-- what are the knights going to do without joey johns? 
I don't think any ofus know anow anuff of the story to sayone wayor the other.. but if every one was ok withit and thewomen wasnotforst into doing it i don't see anything rong with it
you can be a mother on every age, but you just know your child a bit shorter | diverden wrote: |
| MADRID, Spain (AP) -- A 67-year-old Spanish woman became the world's oldest mother after she gave birth to twins in the northern city of Barcelona on Saturday, a hospital official said. |
Ok, I definitely have a problem with this. If this woman dies at 70, her twins will only be 3 years old. At such a young age, they'll be orphans and possibly become a burden to the state. Let's say she lives to be 90, her twins will be 23, but she'll may be unable to see, hear or recognise them.
If the kids run into the street while she's out walking with them, how fast can she run after them? Can she cope with many sleepless nights, feeding and nappy changes at this age. And it's not one child but two!
I find this kind of thing both absurd and wrong and it should literally be prevented by law.Man at that age your not supposed to be a mom...your supposed to be a grandmom and if your not yet one then adopt a child...better yet provide support to young ladies with kids (then you will be like a grandmother)
