At 67, Romanian becomes oldest woman ever to give birth

AFP | January 16, 2005

BUCHAREST - A 67-year-old Romanian became the oldest woman ever known to have given birth, although one of her twin girls died shortly afterwards, Bucharest's Giulesti Hospital told a TV station.

Adriana Iliescu, a retired university professor, had undergone fertility treatment for nine years before succeeding in becoming pregnant.

Realitatea TV said she had given birth to twin girls, one of whom had died almost immediately. The surviving infant, which weighed 1.4 kilogram (three pounds), was in good health, the TV channel said.

The previous record was held by an Italian woman who gave birth to a baby boy at the age of 62. Doctors had implanted the egg of a young Italian woman which had been fertlized by her husband's sperm.

Doctors who handled the Iliescu pregnancy maintained total secrecy about the case, which became known to the Romanian public only from one exclusive interview Iliescu gave on the Realitatea television channel last month.

In the appearance, filmed in a hospital whose identity and location were not divulged, the retired professor said she had "not been able to resign myself to not having a child."

"I always dreamt of being a mother, and now I'm experiencing the happiest time of my life, waiting to bring my twin daughters into the world," the graying academic said with visible emotion.

Iliescu said she did not feel the effect of her relatively advanced years.

The case has sparked widespread controversy.

"She will be too old to see her children grow up," lamented the newspaper Cotidianul ahead of the birth, questioning the ethics of doctors who consented to her being artificially inseminated.

But the Church has adopted a conciliatory position.

"The Bible preaches love and procreation at whatever age," said the press office of Patriarch Bogdan Teleanu, head of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Lucia Cornea, a staff member of Romania's centre for assisted reproduction, does not agree: "It's a scandal," she said.

Gheorghe Borcean, head of the Romanian medical profession's ethics committee, meanwhile criticised the mystery that shrouded the case.

"A case of such prominence should require academic debates and not just one single television report," he complained.

He said the Iliescu experiment had been "very risky both for the mother and for the children."

"Furthermore the quality of the sperm used for conception is doubtful," he warned.

A new Romanian law on assisted reproduction will come into effect in the country on January 1, 2007, the date on which Romania hopes to join the European Union ( news -web sites ), Cornea says.

"This law, in line with European norms, is expected to include an age limit of around 50 years of age for Romanian women seeking artificial insemination," she notes.

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