A 66-year-old Romanian woman dubbed “the world’s oldest mum” in the local press on Tuesday defended her decision to have a baby, saying she was like any other mother.
Adriana Iliescu, a university professor and children’s author, gave birth to a baby girl on Sunday, after doctors used in vitro fertilization and the sperm and eggs from younger people.
The Romanian Orthodox Church slammed that act as “selfish” and the birth stirred debate in the local press.
“When the mother is 80 years old and the little girl 13, who will protect who?” daily newspaper National wrote.
'Nobody can foresee the future'
Iliescu, in her first public appearance since giving birth, told journalists at Bucharest’s Giulesti maternity hospital that she was not worried for her daughter.
“Nobody can foresee the future,” said Iliescu. “I’m a normal woman, like any woman who has a child.”
The Health Ministry said a bill limiting in vitro fertilization use had been submitted to parliament. “According to this bill, medically assisted human reproduction is forbidden in cases of infertility caused by age,” it said.
It also said in a statement it would invite Church representatives and anyone interested in the case to a public debate, but did not specify when.
Iliescu was pregnant with twin girls but one died. Doctors performed a caesarean section in the 33rd week of pregnancy to save the other, who weighs 3.1 pounds.
The baby, whose name is Eliza-Maria, is in stable condition but doctors say she will need up to six weeks in the hospital.
“To be honest, I myself don’t fully understand all my motivations,” Iliescu, who started fertility treatment in 1995, told reporters. “But maybe this was my mission, to show that women can, and must have children.”
It was Iliescu’s third attempt to carry a pregnancy to term and doctors said the eggs and sperm came from “healthy young people.”
Romania currently imposes no age limit for patients seeking in vitro fertilization. The European Union, which Romania hopes to join in 2007, usually restricts the treatment but the age limit varies from country to country.
Two years ago, a 65-year-old retired schoolteacher in India gave birth to a baby boy.