Maria del Carmen Bousada became the oldest new mom in the world, when she gave birth to twins at the age of 66 in December 2006. She is now dead barely two and half years later, leaving the toddlers behind. Earlier, Bousada lied to a California fertility clinic to dodge their upper age limit of 55 years for single mothers. After the birth of her twins, when her actual date of birth was made public, she entered the Guinness World Records for being the oldest new mom. She justified her decision to become a mom saying that her mother lived beyond 100 years and she too would be around to take care of the kids. Dr. Vicken Sahakian, director and owner of the fertility clinic, where Bousada underwent hormone treatment and IVF procedure, said that she cooked the records regarding her birth date. When informed of her death, Sahakian said that this was an event he had foreseen, but extremely unfortunate. Sahakian defended his clinic by adding

that they are doctors and not detectives. They accept the documents presented to them at the face value. Bousada underwent three weeks of hormone treatment to revitalize her uterus. Then, she was implanted with a younger woman’s eggs and donated sperm that led to her pregnancy. Sahakian ruled out the role of hormonal treatment in raising the cancer risk. Bousada’s brother while disclosing her death did not elaborate on the cause. However, a newspaper report said that she was diagnosed with tumor, right after the birth of her twins. Even though there is no law regulating the upper age limit of IVF candidates, most clinics in US as well as in Spain have kept the cut off at 50 or 55 years. As Sahakian points out that this is to ensure the presence of mother until the child reaches 18 years of age. For more information, please visit the source of this article.

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Death of World’s Oldest Mom Raises Ethical Issues