Sixty-Year-Old Japanese Woman Gives Birth
Aug. 6 -- A 60-year-old Japanese woman became Japan'soldest new mother last month when she gave birth to a healthy babyafter undergoing in-vitro fertilization in the United States, thedirector of the center that coordinated the procedure said today.
The announcement came as increasing numbers of infertileJapanese couples eager to have children are looking overseas forinfertility treaments — which are not easily available in thiscountry. The woman became pregnant last winter after undergoing anin-vitro fertilization procedure at the Nevada Center forReproductive Medicine using her husband's sperm and ova donated by an Asian woman, said Yuki Sumi, head of the Information Center for Surrogate Motherhood in Tokyo.
Over 60 and a New Mom
Sumi said the woman gave birth to a healthy baby — her first — late last month at a hospital in downtown Tokyo, but declined to identify her, disclose the baby's sex or specify the nationality of the ova donor.
She is believed to be the oldest woman ever to give birth inthis country, Sumi and Japanese news reports said.
Guinness World Records 2001 lists two 63-year-old women who have given birth: Rosanna Della Corte of Italy in 1994 and Arceli Keh of California in 1996. News reports, however, have put Della Corte'sage at 62 when she gave birth.
Sumi said the 60-year-old Japanese woman got married in her late50s and wanted to have a baby but was told by doctors that it theycould not help her because of her age.
Infertility treatments are still controversial in Japan eventhough the country is troubled by a falling birthrate and rapidlygraying population.
"It is wrong that a married couple cannot have a child justbecause the woman is elderly," Kyodo News agency quoted the woman as saying.
Group Restricts In-Vitro Insemination
A national debate began in May when a Japanese doctor disclosedthat a surrogate mother had successfully delivered a healthy babyfor the first time in Japan.
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