A court battle between a divorced couple over the future of their frozen embryos began Monday with an attorney for the former husband accusing the woman of using the dispute to get money.
Dr. Mimi Lee, 46, a pianist and part-time anesthesiologist, married Stephen Findley, a wealthy executive, five years ago. Shortly before the wedding, Lee learned she had breast cancer.
Unsure whether the disease would make it impossible for her to have children, the couple went to a fertility center, where Lee's eggs and Findley's sperm created five embryos, now frozen.
Findley filed for divorce two years ago and wants the embryos destroyed. Lee, now infertile, wants to implant the embryos into a surrogate and have a baby. Without the embryos, she will never have a child who shares her genes.
If the embryos are implanted and carry to term, the ex-husband becomes a father without consent. If the embryos are destroyed, the ex-wife is denied the deep need to procreate. The embryos themselves have issues either way. Modern biomedical ethics are complex.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday July 16 2015, @02:14AM
There are more risks associated with older mothers, but modern medicine can manage most of those. But there has been a lot of research lately that says older parents make better parents [livescience.com]. The gist of it is that older parents are more emotionally mature and have more, relevant life experience to guide their kids.
That feels right to me. My wife and I had our first in our late 30's. I know I wouldn't have been emotionally ready before then. Had I had kids in my 20's, I'd be dealing with some messed up children now because I would have made lots of rookie mistakes. And that's not terribly incongruent with what my parents' generation would say about having kids (they were all married by their early 20's), in that they'd have to screw up the first couple of kids before they figured out what they were doing.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by choose another one on Thursday July 16 2015, @09:00AM
We're all rookies with kids, even having had three I don't think I'm not - every kid is different, the more you think you've learned from the others the more likely you are to get stuff 'wrong' through dogmatic insistence in following what worked for older siblings. If you've had nine kids your still a rookie with the tenth.
I am 46 now, had kids early 30's and if I have any regret, it's not doing it earlier. Starting out with another one now would be scary. By school age you're going to be 50s and probably mistaken for grandparents at school gate. By time they are 10 and wanting to do exciting active things you are going to be acting like grandparents, while the actual grandparents are probably in a care home, or dead.
Having kids is what makes you mature, younger parents just have to learn it a lot faster - IMO.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2015, @04:31PM
Having kids is what makes you mature
"mature" is a subjective term in this case. And I'd say having kids is far from the only thing that makes you "mature". Not everyone wants children, and they are not any worse than you because of it.