Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 11, 1994 TAG: 9401220011
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But that's not what bothers us.
After all, what about older men who impregnate younger women? They sometimes fail to live along enough to see their progeny into adulthood. And they get treated to "snow on the roof but fire in the chimney" compliments.
Today's women have pushed away the thresholds of middle age, not to mention old age. Septuagenarians are out on the tennis courts, the jogging tracks, the ski slopes. Since the average life expectancy for women today is 79, there's a very good chance the late-in-life mom will be alive to see a son or daughter go off to college.
In any case, this newspaper is unlikely ever to have to launch feature series about Roanoke's highest-in-the-state rate of post-menopausal pregnancies. Even with the natural barrier to such pregnancies removed by modern medicine - an Italian doctor helped the London woman get pregnant by implanting donated, fertilized eggs - it's hard to imagine many women choosing late-in-life motherhood.
Certainly, a post-menopausal woman who seeks medical help to get pregnant can't be accused of immaturity. Nor can she be accused of bringing unwanted children into the world. How nice if that could be said of all mothers - and fathers.
No, what bothers us is how medical advances are outstripping society's appreciation of equity and common sense in health care. Not only does a portion of research at the frontiers of reproductive technology reject any notion that Mother Nature sometimes has her reasons. (The good Baron von Frankenstein would blanch at some of this stuff.) It also is producing benefits for a relative few at enormous expense.
We're not taking adequate care of the babies we already have. Should we really be devoting precious resources to impregnating the elderly?
by CNB