A 72-year-old woman wants a baby and plans to have one via in vitro fertilization. The women on “The View” have conflicting feelings about it.
“72-year-old Jenny Brown has spent almost $50,000 on in vitro fertilization because she is determined to have a baby, saying her age doesn't matter because a mom can die at any age and she's fully prepared for the hard work of motherhood,” Whoopi Goldberg explained on July 15, the same day the Associated Press [1] reported the World's oldest mom died and left behind two-year-old twins.
Barbara Walters, who is around 80, said absolutely not: “Whatever in vitro doctor or clinic gives this woman in vitro fertilization, it ought to be closed. There's got to be some law.” The question of what responsibilities doctors and clinics have has been debated recently, especially in the case of Nadya Suleman and her octuplets [2].
Sherri Shepherd agreed with Walters: “… she also says that, you know, young people die, too. But young people don't die of natural causes … she's 72. She has more likelihood of dying from natural causes than a young person.”
Elisabeth Hasselbeck, currently pregnant with her third child, also opposed the idea, and remarked on the selfishness of wanting a child at that age and ignoring the “after.”
But of course, Joy Behart chimed in with her own view. “…on the other hand, I don't hear all these liberated women saying men at 72 don't do it. They do it all the time,” she began, and then went on to say that while she would not do it, “if she wants to do it, let her do it.”
None of the women brought up any moral or ethical objections to in vitro fertilization itself.