My gut reaction was "Ewww. Gross!" But then, when I gave it another thought I realized even my reaction is more complicated than that. Because who has the "right" to be a parent can be a very complicated discussion.
Obviously, there's a lot of science and technology involved here. It's pretty tough...almost impossible...for a woman over 50 to give birth without some help. So while most of these women may actually give birth, it's not usually with their own eggs. Even then, they sometimes require a little boosting from other medical advances.
It's easy to go to the place of saying "if she's too old, she'll die while the kid is young". But sometimes even young parents die. So since we don't really know when a person will leave this earth, that's more of a statistical argument than one that applies to any specific situation.
I've always pretty much felt that I didn't want kids. But I do recall when I was in my early 30s, I was told by an older woman that she never wanted kids when she was young, but came to regret that decision when she got older. So, I always wondered if that would happen to me. And it almost did...for just a few minutes. There was a very brief period when I thought "I should have a baby before it's too late"; I didn't want to end up in the same situation this woman had. But that seemed like a really foolish reason to have a kid. Because I might want one later?? What if I didn't? Then what? Could I give it away, saying I had changed my mind? Well, I think people wouldn't look too kindly on that.
The reality is, I can think of lots of people who shouldn't have kids: substance abusers, crazy people, narcissists, the selfish, mean people... but nobody writes an article about whether they should be allowed to procreate. I'd probably choose an older lady over a meth addict.
Interestingly, births to women over 45 years old have doubled since 1997, according to the CDC, and births to women over 50 have increased by 375%. This might be something we'll have to get used to whether we like it or not.
Fortunately, I'm still safe from having to think about this too much. No kids; no real desire to have any...yet.
What do you think? Is this a big deal? Should it be?
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