In May of 2006, 63 year old Dr. Patricia Rashbrook became the…

Question Answered step-by-step In May of 2006, 63 year old Dr. Patricia Rashbrook became the… In May of 2006, 63 year old Dr. Patricia Rashbrook became the oldest woman in England to give birth to a baby.  Dr. Rashbrook, a clinical child psychologist, had become pregnant through the medical services of Dr. Severino Antinori, a controversial fertility specialist located in Rome, Italy, who has helped numerous post-menopausal women become pregnant.  Dr. Rashbrook and her husband, John Farrant, 61, had to go to Rome because they could not find an IVF clinic in Britain willing to help them.  They reportedly paid Antinori £ 50,000.   Antinori used eggs that were purchased, according to one story I read, from a woman in Eastern Europe, and John Farrant’s sperm, and implanted the embryo, created in-vitro, in Rashbrook’s uterus.  The announcement of Rashbrook’s pregnancy and delivery, as you might imagine, was met with a great deal of controversy in Britain.  Some, like Josephine Quintavalle, spokesperson for the lobbying group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, accused Rashbrook of being selfish.  “It is extremely difficult for a child to have a mother who is as old as a grandmother would be,” according to Quintavalle.  Others added that pregnancy in women so old placed their babies at unnecessary risk, and that the parents would likely be dead by the time the child reached his 20’s.  Some commentators also questioned making babies who would then likely become wards of the state.  Some also wondered about the egg donor.  Was she made aware of who the recipient of the eggs was going to be?  What are the primary stances on this case? What is morally permissible or impermissible about this?  Should fertility services be made available to women in their 50’s or 60’s?  Concerning the egg donation (which is, again, really not donation but a commercial transaction):   Do women have a right to specify who should and who should not receive their ova when they “donate” them?  Should women be given money for their ova?  Is selling eggs immoral? Arts & Humanities Philosophy PHIL 312 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)