María del Carmen Bousada de Lara of Cadiz, who at 67 became the oldest woman to give birth, has succumbed to cancer at the age of 70.
Bousada conceived her twins through an IVF program run by a Los Angeles clinic after lying about her age to skirt the 55-year maximum age limit. Her twins, Pau and Christian were born on 29 December 2006.
Regarding the birth, Josephine Quintavalle, the head of the Comment on Reproductive Ethics campaigning group, voiced what may have been widely held concerns when she said:
This is horrifying, it’s such a sad story. The poor children have been created and treated like objects. I’m sorry but she’s been totally selfish.
Why would a woman want to become a mother at an age when she knows her children are much more likely to be orphaned when they’re young? Women are not meant to have babies when they’re in their sixties.
Bousada justified her actions by stating that her own mother had lived to 101 and that she believed that she would do the same.
There is as of yet no word on what will become of Bousada’s two children, she was single at the time of the birth.
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