Are you ever too old to have a baby? The ethical challenges of older women using infertility services

Abstract

Older parenthood raises a variety of important factual and ethical questions. None of the questions have received sufficient attention despite the rapid expansion in the United States and other nations in the numbers of older parents. We do not know much about the safety, economic, and psychosocial impact of these emerging practices on children or parents. Nor have there been many analytical considerations of the ethical issues raised. We argue in this article that there are reasons for concern when older persons seek to utilize fertility treatments, including the safety of pregnancy for older women, risks posed to children delivered by older mothers, issues around what constitutes safe conditions for having a child relative to the age of parents, and the importance of guaranteeing that someone will serve in the parental role should an older parent or parents become disabled or die. To protect the best interest of children created by technology in new familial circumstances, internationally recognized and enforced standards for fertility clinics to follow ought to be enacted in making decisions about treating older parents seeking infertility services.