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72-Year-Old Wants to Be World’s Oldest Mother
She’s seventy-two, but Jenny Brown says she’s ready to be a mother. No matter how much it costs.
The British woman is about to undergo her seventh course of IVF in attempts to become pregnant at an age four years past the age of the current oldest new mom in the world (who just died at sixty-nine).
And that’s not all, she’s asking women to come forward as egg donors because she wants to continue with IVF rather than use a surrogate to carry her baby.
She’s already tried using her own eggs, a process that began twenty years ago, when she was fifty-two and using a sperm donor. It didn’t work, and she’s blown through tens of thousands of dollars since trying to become a mother.
But why?
I have taken criticism on here before for questioning why women of SUCH an advanced age would choose to have children alone, and the fact that a woman just died at sixty-nine leaving behind toddler twins only buoys my argument. I’m well aware of the desire to be a mother, and of women’s rights over their own bodies. But let’s step back and think about who you’re doing this for . . . having kids is supposed to be about THEM.
And the chances of a seventy-two-year-old woman dying shortly after her children are born are signficantly greater than those of a twenty-, thirty-, even forty- or fifty-year-old woman. I’m also much more hesitant to support single parenting at such an advanced age for much the same reason – the likelihood of death before the child is old enough to care for him or herself. Which leaves them with who, exactly, to care for them?
I was in my twenties when I gave birth, and it’s true I could be hit by a bus tomorrow. I’m also married, so that would leave my daughter with a second caregiver. But even if I wasn’t, my age means I have two parents still alive and still young enough to ostensibly care for her for the next sixteen years as well as a brother, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. who are all young enough right now to step in should something happen. But the sad thing about aging is watching our closest relatives and friends die off, leaving ourselves with limited support systems.
Brown has thought of giving her kids a guardian, a younger friend. But as much as I can agree that women’s bodies are our own to do with what we please, I would posit this isn’t about her body at all. It’s about the body she creates and what happens to that new person after they arrive.
What do you think?
Image: DailyMail
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7 Comments
Manjari commented on Jul 16 09 at 8:32 pmI agree. I wish she wouldn’t do that.
Tikibar commented on Jul 17 09 at 11:02 amI think is her satisfying her own ego – and not at all about any potential offspring. She wants babies to prove how young and fecund she is.
Shana commented on Jul 17 09 at 11:07 amWhy when it did not work twenty years ago did she not consider adoption or fostering a child. There are so many kids out there that need a home and sure it is great to have a kid that came from your own body, but in the end that is just a few months of your life (which starts to suck towards the end anyways). If it is really about being a mother, rather than just breeding, she would have looked at avenues other than this. As I said before, just because science makes something possible does not mean it should be done. Frankly put, there need to be limits.
SteelRigged commented on Jul 17 09 at 11:50 amI agree with Shana. If this is about mothering a child, then adoption is the way to go.
What? commented on Jul 17 09 at 4:56 pmMotherhood is the bigggest scam of the century. Children are used way too much as a way to impose other peoples values upon how children should be raised. Its always an excuse to puppetise women into how they should conduct their bodies – When is it ever going to be enough? How much abuse do we condone in favour of the best interests? Are you aware that “best interests” originated from a nazi camp? There needs to be a big fat line drawn into the sand on how far people can use the word “children” to control others and dictate motherhood. Motherhood was far less abusive rior to the industrializatiion of it – Now they are baby factories
Shannon LC Cate commented on Jul 18 09 at 1:53 pmSince she needs both donor sperm and eggs, I am scratching my head over this one. First I thought maybe she was dead-set on leaving her genes in the next generation. Maybe she is itchin’ to experience pregnancy and birth. Neither of those are good reasons to bring a child into the world, in my opinion. As for fostering and/or adoption, even in the United States you’d be hard-pressed to be allowed to adopt alone in your fifties, let alone older than that. In Britain there are far, far fewer children available for adoption, so I can see that this option just isn’t really open for her.
I am an advocate for women’s reproductive freedom and even for older moms (past menopause, for example), but I also think all our reproductive decisions should be informed by the rights of the children we produce. And I’d have to agree that absent an extensive, multi-generation kinship network, a kid deserves a parent who isn’t likely to die within less than a decade of its birth.
What kind of family–blood or otherwise–does this woman have and is she planning to raise her child in cooperation with them?
Rebecca commented on Jan 31 10 at 5:20 pm“But let’s step back and think about who you’re doing this for . . . having kids is supposed to be about THEM.”
100% agreed. While I believe she should be allowed to do what she wants, of course, I wish she would rethink what she is doing to the potential child.
She could foster a child, or adopt an older child (lots of young teens need parents). I was under the impression that the requirements are less stringent for older kids.
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