A TOP fertility doctor has called for an end to the practice of elderly women giving

[Angel]

A TOP fertility doctor has called for an end to the practice of elderly women giving birth after a 62-year-old became the oldest mother in Britain.

Patti Rashbrook, a child psychiatrist, gave birth to a son at her local Sussex hospital on Wednesday after receiving IVF treatment abroad. The law in Britain meant she could not be impregnated here.

Despite the parents’ public declarations of joy about their “wonderful son”, Sam Abdalla, medical director of the infertility clinic at the Lister hospital in London, said he opposed the trend towards treating ever older women with IVF.

“It is true we can easily get a 70 year old pregnant, or even someone older. I believe though, that it is much better to have the rules and framework that apply in Britain. Although this woman seems healthy and a very nice person, I hope this remains an individual case.”

Abdalla believes the practice should be halted because elderly mothers may not live long enough to see their children grow up.

A campaigner on ethical reproduction accused Rashbrook yesterday of being “selfish” and “irresponsible”. Josephine Quintavalle, founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said that Rashbrook had “totally distorted nature”.

“What she has done is selfish, it is an example of putting her own wants ahead of those of the child,” she said. “I am sure the reaction from most of the population to this is one of revulsion and distaste.

“The irony is that by taking so many invasive drugs to create a child at an advanced age, she may have actually shortened her lifespan.”

She questioned whether the egg donated to Rashbrook, who has three adult children but wanted another by John Farrant, 60, her second husband, had been obtained through the exploitation of poor eastern European women.

Rashbrook, who had IVF under the guidance of Severino Antinori, the controversial fertility expert, was forced to travel to Moscow for eggs after the law changed in Italy. She had made four unsuccessful attempts there to become pregnant.

“I find it highly unlikely that full consent of the donating woman has been obtained in the sense that she knew that a 62-year-old woman would receive the egg,” said Quintavalle. “Even if she had been told of its destination, it makes you wonder what kind of financial straits she would have been in to agree to it.”

Rashbrook, whose baby is so far known only by the nickname “JJ”, was quoted in the Daily Mail yesterday speaking of her delight. JJ was born by caesarean section at the Royal Sussex County hospital, Brighton, weighing a healthy 6lb 10.5oz.

Shortly after the birth, she gave an exclusive interview to the paper, for which the couple are understood to have been paid a six-figure sum.

Rashbrook told the Mail: “He [JJ] is adorable, and seeing him for the first time was beyond words. Having been through so much to have him, we are overjoyed. His birth was absolutely wonderful and deeply moving for both of us.”

Rashbrook also took on her critics, insisting she was against taking advantage of poor women forced to sell their eggs.

“We deplore the exploitation of poverty stricken women overseas and would hope that present practice in the UK could be re-thought such that desperate British couples were not tempted to seek treatment abroad,” she said.

“We are both extremely healthy . . . but nevertheless have younger friends with children who have agreed to act as surrogate parents should anything happen. What is important in parenting is not how old you are, but whether you are meeting all the child’s needs and we are very confident.”

Farrant, who works as a higher education management consultant and is a first-time father, said the couple had received more than 200 goodwill letters, cards and e-mails and just one unsigned letter which was “negative in tone”.

“The first thing I saw when he was born was that shock of black hair then, when I saw the rest of him, I was struck by his beauty in miniature, his perfection.”

Farrant, whose first marriage ended childless 24 years ago, said he had never considered having offspring prior to meeting his second wife.

He said: “From the day we first met, Patti recognised something in me I had never acknowledged. She said ‘You would have made a wonderful father’ and we both recall tears coming to my eyes. Now I have tears for a different reason.”

Rashbrook said that her other children — Caroline, 26, a doctor in the West Country; William, 22, a London-based student; and Charles, 18, who lives at home — were “absolutely enchanted” with their new sibling. Her 93-year-old father, a widower, was also “thrilled”.

Rashbrook had hoped to give birth naturally but three weeks short of her due date of July 15 it was decided that an elective caesarean would be safer. The baby is the result of the couple’s fifth attempt to conceive, a process that cost £10,000.

It is not clear if they will try for a sibling. A spokesman for the couple refused to be drawn on the question of whether they had further frozen embryos in store at the Moscow clinic they used.

This weekend a Moscow gynaecologist said: “We are getting increasing numbers of patients from western Europe, and the publicity about what this doctor has done will certainly increase the demand.”

Scientists have denounced calls from a Catholic cardinal for those who carry out embryonic stem cell research to be excommunicated.

Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo said work on stem cells was “the same as abortion” and those involved should be cut off from the church.

Scientists in Britain said the stance amounted to “religious persecution”. Stephen Minger, a stem cell expert, said: “Having been raised a Catholic, I found this stance outrageous.”