More and more people, between 45 and 60 years old, long for a child. Therefor, many older couples travel to different countries in an attempt to make their dream come true.
But is it ethically right to give birth to a baby through insemination when you’re
60 years old? Is it a human right to have a baby even at that age? Or will the consequences for the child be to extensive?

Involuntary childlessness is quite common in these days. But there are options even for those couples who can’t give birth to a child in the natural way. Adoption is one alternative. Another one is insemination, which means that either an donated egg gets placed into the expectant mother and her man’s sperm can be used through the natural way. Or that donated sperm is inseminated into the woman and fertilises her own eggs.

Around 2000 Swedish babies are born through insemination every year. But none of the mothers are over 45 years old. In public Swedish clinics the age limit for insemination on a woman is 38 years. In the private clinics the woman can be up to between 43 and 45 years old. The consequence of this age limit is that many older women travel to countries, like Cyprus, where it’s legal to do inseminations at their age.

Consequences for mother and child

But are there no physical or mental risks for the mother or the foetus? It can’t be without reasons that Sweden has an age limit at 45 years for inseminations. The risks for the woman is almost as big as for the child. It can be tremendously dangerous and arduous for a woman over 50 years to go through a pregnancy, when the body at that age often is much weaker. The risk for the woman’s life is not very huge, but should not be underestimated.
The children who are born by older women, do more often get defects, visual handicaps and physical and mental handicaps, like Downs syndrome and retardations.
The average length of life for women in Sweden is 82 years. For men it’s 77 years. Let’s say that a woman give birth to a child when she’s 60 years old. At the time the child is 15, the mother will be 75 years old. Will she and the father still be capable of taking care of the child? If they don’t, the mental consequences for the child can be enormous.

Is it ethically right?

In spite of all these consequences, it’s impossible to judge if a woman at 60 years, should be a worse mother then one who is 30 years younger. The older woman could be just as healthy and strong as the younger one. Scientists and normal people like us, have a lot of opinions. Some think it’s ethically right, and some think it’s wrong. It’s very difficult to follow any rules, cause even if it’s illegal for these women to do inseminations in Sweden, it’s quite easy for them to go and do it in another country that allows it. Also, it’s difficult to create laws about an age limit, that all clinics would follow, when every individual person is unique, and therefor also should be treated separately. You can’t compare a 45 year old woman’s health, with the state of a 15 years older woman’s health.

In an interview, a 47 year old woman tells the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet: ”I have recently arrived from my first insemination try on Cyprus. There they established through sampling that everything was great, which means that I’m just as healthy and fertile as a 30 year old woman. Sometimes I wonder why I can’t be allowed to go through this in Sweden?”
If we’re thinking of the consequences it could be wonderful for the parents to have a child, but cause much danger for the child itself. The parents are doing it for a good cause, they long for a child of their own. But what they don’t know is that the happiness can turn into huge, bad and unplanned consequences. So who decides which the best consequence is? Is it worth the possible risk for defects on the child, if it brings the parents great happiness and they’ll give the baby the best love of all in return?

Everyone have the same rights

I consider this as a very difficult question to take a stand in. I absolutely think that these old women and men are as much worth as anybody else and therefor also should have the same rights. But in the same time I can’t stop thinking about the fact that the children often get very physically and mentally injured. And I wonder how I would have felt if my mother died when I was 13 years old? In this question I wish I could figure out how to bring the most happiness to the greatest number of people. I’ve found it impossible. In both cases, someone might get hurt sooner or later. I think though, that the most important thing to do, is to treat everyone individually. The 40 and 50 year old women of today, are in much better shape compared to earlier generations. I think we should remember to have that in mind.
There doesn’t seems to be any changes in the foreseeable future, concerning the age limit for inseminations in Sweden. But what do you think will happen if the number of older couples who want to give birth to a child, will keep rising? Will everybody go to other countries then, and come home with a new-born baby?

© 2003 Freeway
Writers: Lena Bodén (sp05-48@park.se).
HTML by: Robert Bohman (te04-02@park.se).