Is this more of your handy work?
62-Year-Old Woman Gives Birth
NICE, France (Reuters) - A woman aged 62 has given birth to a baby boy in France and may face court action for undergoing a fertility treatment available in neighboring Italy and England but banned under local laws.
Philippe Laverne, director of the Lauriers clinic in the Mediterranean town of Frejus, said the woman -- whose identity is being kept secret -- delivered the baby on May 14.
``The mother and baby, a boy weighing three kilos (6.6 pounds), are well, and that is the most important thing for us,'' he said.
``It's true we don't see sixty-year-olds going into labor every day and that it poses some fundamental problems, but it is not up to us to judge.''
Authorities in charge of issuing the child's identity papers alerted the courts after checking the mother's age. Officials have ruled out a spontaneous pregnancy and believe she underwent fertility treatment abroad.
Health Minister Bernard Kouchner said the birth was a sign of the ``uncontrollable deviations'' of scientific progress, raising the prospect of women giving birth well into old age.
``We have banned this type of practice since couples must be of the age to procreate, which at 62 is arguable,'' he said.
The oldest known woman in the world to give birth was Italian Rosanna Della Corte who had a boy in 1994 at the age of 63 after fertility treatment. |
