70-Year-Old Woman Gives Birth

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"Married for 50 years, she had been trying, without success, to have a child for much of that time, until she entered menopause (which was 20 years ago). The Hindustan Times, announcing the birth yesterday, quotes her as saying : “We longed for a child all these years and now we are very happy to have one.”

The baby was conceived through the use of a donor egg that was injected with Ms. Devi’s 72-year-old husband’s sperm. And she seems to be a preemie, since the embryo transfer took place on April 18, according to newspaper reports, and she was born seven months later."

Devi’s newborn can be called a triumph of science over infertility, but is this really a triumph? Where does the yearning to be a parent become selfish disregard for the life of the child being created? A child whose parents will almost definitely not see her into adulthood?

How old is too old to have a baby?"