IS ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION A DOUBLE - EDGED SWORD?

By Roxana-Elena Sava, Correspondante en Roumanie On January 16th 2005 the Romanians were shocked to find out that their country was the setting of a new world record: a 66 year old woman had given birth to a child. For more than a week this had been one of the top news, as the media dug in the story, trying to offer to the public more and more details. The case of Adriana Iliescu, the oldest mother in the world, generated many discussions and caused a split in the public opinion, between the people who approved her action and expressed their admiration, and the ones who condemned her as irresponsible.

According to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, Adriana Iliescu was born on May 31st 1938, in Craiova. Most of her life she worked as a teacher of Romanian language and literature. In 1975 she gets her Ph. D. in Philology. She is currently known as a scientific secretary in the College of Philology within Hyperion University.

She started the hormonal treatment in 1995, in order to stop the menopause and allow her body to become pregnant again. Four years later, in 1999, the doctors considered her prepared for artificial insemination, and started trying to impregnate her. The first successfully implanted egg stopped developing after four months, and, around March 2000, Mrs. Iliescu had to give up that pregnancy. She was under the care of Dr. Ion Munteanu, in Timisoara. At the moment, the doctor considered that the woman’s body was not yet prepared. So he advised her to go to Dr. Bogdan Marinescu, in Bucharest.

In 2004 Adriana Iliescu was again artificially inseminated, with three zygotes, for which the sperm and the ovules had anonymous donors. Three weeks later, one of the embryos stopped developing and died. The remaining fetuses, both female, went on developing, but 33 weeks later, one of them weighed 1.45 kilograms and the other had just 0.69 kilograms. There were other complications, and the smallest one eventually died.

On January 16th, through a Caesarian section, Adriana Iliescu gave birth to a baby girl, Eliza Maria. The baby was premature, after just 33 weeks of pregnancy, but doctor Bogdan Marinescu stated that it was not different from any other premature baby, and that it would follow a normal evolution towards recovering her age, as well as her weight. Thus, Adriana Iliescu became the oldest mother in the world and entered the Guinness Book of Records.

The reactions were, as I said, quite violent, and quite diverse. But there were many voices against this act. Among them, the Christian Orthodox Church of Romania declared, through the voice of father Iustin Marchis, president Basescu’s confessor: “The Church cannot bless a woman who wishes to bring a child to the world at this age, specially since she hasn’t asked for approval from her priest, if she has one. A child must be born from the love of two persons.” Another strong argument against this birth were the fact that Mrs. Iliescu is actually a single mother, and that, due to her advanced age, she may not have the strength and possibilities to really nurture her child, to offer her what every child needs. When young Eliza turns 21, her mother will be 87 years old.

48 hours after the operation, Adriana Iliescu appeared in front of the reporters for a press conference, prepared to answer all their questions. Her presence was somehow disconcerting. She seemed very self-assured and happy with her situation, despite the voices accusing her of being irresponsible, yet some of the things she said made people think she is not completely aware of the reality she lives in. Her words were not illogical, but strange: “I wanted a child very much. This was my mission. The world is full of women who gave birth at old ages. Each human being has a mission, and mine is to show that women must have children. Today was a wonderful day because I could see my child.” She added: “Every man has a path to walk on, no matter what. We must understand that in today’s world we cannot forget the sacred anymore. It is always God’s will for a human being to come to this world, and if anyone thinks this is not true, it is only because we have lived in an atheist country.” Asked why she hasn’t had a baby earlier, she answered that there were very difficult times before 1989. Mrs. Iliescu also declared she is happy that this child was born in a family with a great intellectual tradition, and that young Eliza will be – in the words of Mr. Patapievici’s book, ‘The Recent man’ – a modern person, just like herself, and not a recent person.

Mrs. Iliescu also believes that people should be more humble in front of nature, and should accept the fact that some things we simply can’t explain and understand. She assured everybody that the child is not a clone, and stated that 70% of the newborn’s personality is generated before the actual birth.

During the press conference the oldest mother in the world was assisted by her doctor, Bogdan Marinescu. He is also the director of the “Panait Sarbu” hospital, where Eliza Maria was born. The doctor seemed pretty disturbed by a question that was asked many times – whether Mrs. Iliescu was psychiatrically consulted before the insemination or not. Dr. Marinescu invited the reporters to answer to this question themselves after seeing Mrs. Iliescu in the press conference. He then ended the meeting, motivating that the mother needs peace and time to take care of her health and of her newborn.

The case generated a crisis in Romania, ethically speaking. The Physician’s College started an investigation to determine the context of the artificial insemination process. Since Romania doesn’t have legislation against such situations, the conclusion was that nobody can be held legally responsible for this case, but the team of doctors that made it all possible can be considered morally responsible for the child.

The occurrence of this crisis is normal, if we take into consideration the fact that, for example, in the Netherlands and in France the maximum age for a woman to benefit from artificial insemination is 45, and in Australia single women are forbidden to use this technique in order to become mothers.

Above all discussion, the case remains open for many questions. Will the child develop normally – both physically and psychologically – considering the age of the mother? Can Eliza Maria be considered Mrs. Iliescu’s daughter, since biologically they don’t share any genes? What if one of the donors asks for her custody? Should women over 50 be encouraged to have children? Is this something that will help improve Romania’s image as a country capable of educating capable doctors? After all the turmoil, will Romania develop special legislation to prevent future similar cases? I guess all we can do is wait and see.