A 63-year-old woman who lied about her age to become the oldest woman to give birth to a healthy baby has led to renewed questions of ethics and whether there should be an age limit on becoming a parent.
The girl was born in Los Angeles after the mother, who is married and had been childless, underwent three years of fertility treatment at the University of Southern California Medical Centre.
"She said she was 50 when in fact she was 60 at the time she began treatment," said hospital spokesman Chris Tedeschi. "She also produced false medical records."
Dr Mark Sauer, who pioneered the use of donor eggs in older women at the university, said: "I lose my comfort level after 55 because I have to believe there are quality-of-life issues involved.
"When the baby is five, her mother will be 68. And I have to believe that a 78-year-old mother dealing with a teenager may have problems."
The woman underwent two cycles of in-vitro fertilisation, using her 60-year-old husband's sperm and eggs from an anonymous donor. She became pregnant on the fourth in-vitro fertilisation attempt and, when she was 13 weeks pregnant, confessed her actual age.
The mother was 63 years and nine months when her 6lb 2oz baby was born by Caesarean section in November. The previous oldest woman to give birth was a 62-year-old Italian woman. Fewer than 100 women have successfully given birth over the age of 50.
"Her medical records supported the fact that she was 50," said Dr Richard Paulson, who supervised her treatment. "From her appearance we didn't have reason to suspect anything different. All women over the age of 45 who come to us must first pass a series of rigorous physical tests to ensure that they are fit enough to withstand the stress of pregnancy. This patient passed all the tests. We had no reason to doubt her word and we were not trying to set any records."
He said that although infertility clinics may have to reconsider their age limit policies or request irrefutable proof of age, life expectancy for women has dramatically increased.
His patient, he said, had understandable reasons for wanting to become a mother at 63. "She had been married 13 years. It was the first marriage for both her and her husband. They are of a belief that a family is very important. I presume that she had been trying to get pregnant the whole time they were married."
Dr Paulson said he was not upset that the woman had lied to him about her age. "I was amazed when I learned her real age but I was happy for her, in a way," he said. "I feel silly I was fooled but, still, good for her."
Using donated human eggs to achieve a pregnancy in a woman of 63 was described as "a scandalous waste of a scarce resource" by the scientific director of a British test-tube baby clinic yesterday.
Dr Mike McNamee, of Bourn Hall Clinic, near Cambridge, said the procedure was ethically wrong when there were women of natural childbearing age who had experienced premature menopause and whose only hope of pregnancy was a donated egg.
Carrying a baby to term at that age was likely to cause high blood pressure, the risk of pre-eclampsia was greater and the health and development of the baby was at greater risk.
