From A baby at 66 for desperate divorcee set to become Britain’s oldest mother (UK Daily Mail, 5/15/09):
With her sizeable bump on show, this is Elizabeth Adeney – Britain’s oldest mother-to-be.
At 66, she is four years older than the previous record holder.
Mrs Adeney, who is around eight months pregnant, is believed to have undergone IVF abroad because most British clinics will not treat women over the age of 50.
Friends say that the divorcee, a wealthy businesswoman who is still working a five-day week, is in perfect health and looking forward to the birth of what is thought to be her first child…
A friend said she had been desperate to conceive for years. Last year, she traveled to the Ukraine, where a controversial IVF clinic has helped countless women get pregnant using donor eggs and sperm.
The friend added: ‘She was desperate for a child. She was over the moon when she learned last year that she was pregnant and has been quite open about it – it’s not the sort of thing she can hide.
‘Elizabeth has had a pretty good pregnancy. She has been very well, considering her age – I’m amazed how she keeps going.
‘She does get up a little later in the mornings than she used to and sometimes spends an hour or two at home before going to work but she is still at her business Monday to Friday.’
Mrs Adeney, the managing director of a firm in Mildenhall, Suffolk, which produces plastic and textile products, is described by friends as ‘very bright and single-minded’.
The continuing escalating ages at which senior citizen women–by use of increasingly advanced medical technology–are having kids is the height of selfishness and asininity. The asininity also applies to the way the media often applauds with a “Gee, isn”t that wonderful and amazing” when a new record is set. (Mercifully, this article is pretty neutral.)
When this woman’s child becomes a teenager–and can start getting into real trouble–she will be 80 years old. If she happens to still be alive. Not to mention the fact that her child will no have a father.
What really annoys me about this is the greatly increased chance that one or both of these children will be born with a birth defect or other ailment which might not even be apparent until the child is much older. What decent person would want to put a child through that?
To be fair, I’m also critical of men who do the same thing, such as Hugh Hefner’s announced (but scuttled) plans to have a child with young former girlfriend Holly Madison. My biggest objection to what Elizabeth Adeney is doing–the risk of birth defects to the baby–isn”t as much of a factor, but the other criticisms still apply.