Outrage at baby for 66-year-old

Ethics campaigners today criticised a 66-year-old Romanian academic for becoming the world’s oldest woman to give birth.

Adriana Iliescu, who was artificially inseminated, delivered her baby girl Eliza Maria by Caesarean section on Sunday.

Josephine Quintavalle, director of the UK campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said women should be outraged by the news.

“A woman at grandmother age shouldn’t be having children. I can see no justification in this,” she said.

“The parameter is the naturally occurring menopause. It’s an inevitability. I think the message should be spelled out loud and clear to women that they should accept it.

“I think woman should feel outraged by this. The sisterhood has been let down when women can’t accept the natural stages in their life.”

Ms Quintavalle said she was worried by the way fertility treatment was now being used.

“It’s the whole concept of IVF. It started off as as fertility treatment for couples who couldn’t conceive. It’s become a technique that you can buy into whenever you like.”

Ms Iliescu’s daughter Eliza was born weighing 3lb 1oz, less than half the weight of an average newborn. She was placed in intensive care but was breathing on her own.

Ms Ilisecu, a retired university professor who is not married, had been pregnant with triplets but one died during pregnancy at 10 weeks and another was stillborn.

She underwent fertility treatment for nine years, including procedures to reverse the effects of menopause, before being artificially inseminated and then having a Caesarean at 33 weeks.

Guinness World Records lists two 63-year-old women who have given birth: Rosanna Della Corte, of Italy, in 1994, and Arceli Keh, of California, in 1996.