Health: Fit To Be A Mom?

The birth last week, by C-section, of a 3-lb. 3-oz. premature baby girl to a 66-year-old Romanian woman who underwent fertility treatments for nine years may be one for the record books, but it's also Exhibit A in the debate over whether there should be guidelines to govern the use of assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Not only are there no such guidelines for ART clinics in the U.S., according to a study from the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, there is no agreement about how prospective parents should be screened. It's a far cry, says Penn's Art Caplan, director of the center and co-author of the study, from what we accept in assessing the fitness of adoptive parents. ART candidates aren't evaluated in any systematic way (except to determine whether they can pay). The study reported that fewer than 20% of ART specialists even bothered with assessments by psychologists or social workers. One-third of the doctors said they would have no qualms about providing their services to a woman addicted to marijuana. Given the actuarial odds that she will be dead before her daughter even enters high school, should the Romanian have received the treatments that allowed her to have a baby? "Having a 66-year-old involved in a pregnancy that is high risk for both her and the baby is completely unethical," says Caplan. "Creating orphans is never good public policy." --By David Bjerklie