Some 100 women ages 50 and older have borne children in the U.S., and so have many more in other countries. Inevitably, the prospect of using their own eggs, frozen years before, rather than a donor's genetically foreign eggs, will only increase the number of older women who want to give birth. Even at 50, though, pregnancy and childbirth can put a terrible strain on a woman's body, and the demands of child rearing can do the same to both body and spirit. Some observers believe it is not fair to the child. That is, if she is still alive.
Older mothers disagree, of course.
People live longer nowadays, they argue, and stay healthy and strong well into their 70s and 80s. When an older woman bears a child, she is seen as some sort of freak. Yet sexist as it may seem, most experts agree that the mother is usually the more crucial parent. For all these reasons, only a handful of the hundreds of fertility clinics in the U.S. will treat women 50 and older. Unlike most of Europe, the U.S. does not require fertility clinics to be licensed.