An Ethical Assessment of Postmenopausal Motherhood Against the Backdrop of Successful Antiaging Medicine

Abstract

By creating fertility reserves, women are now able to become pregnant using their own eggs, even after menopause. Multiple arguments already exist against postmenopausal motherhood, most of which stress the potential risk of damage involved due to the mother's advanced age. Consequently, the question arises: Can successful antiaging medicine be applied to preserve or enhance cognitive and physical capacity at an advanced age and invalidate these objections? In this article, we shall explore this issue further and come to three main conclusions: (1) Until now, enabling postmenopausal women to become pregnant has not been a specific objective of antiaging medicine. (2) Postmenopausal motherhood can find legitimacy through the development and success of antiaging medicine. (3) The acceptance of postmenopausal motherhoods in our society first requires that antiaging medicine itself find some sort of ethical legitimacy. To evaluate the arguments for and against antiaging medicine and postmenopausal motherhood, it is important to take into consideration two points more in depth, which are constantly being impacted by both medical arguments alike: (1) The identity and role of medicine itself as well as (2) the normative role of our body`s natural boundaries.

Ethische Aspekte der Fertilitätsreservenschaffung bei gesunden Frauen

“…Diese biologische Fitness in Form eines guten gesundheitlichen Allgemeinzustands könnte zudem noch durch eine intensive Nutzung der Angebote der sogenannten "Anti-Aging-Medizin" verbessert werden, sollten sich die Verhei-ßungen der Anti-Aging-Bewegung bewahrheiten, die darauf abzielt, den Alterungsprozess aufzuhalten, d. h. die allgemeine mentale und physische Fitness bis ins hohe Alter aufrechtzuerhalten [32,33]. Unter der Bedingung, dass die Anti-Aging-Medizin erfolgreich ist, würde die Differenz von subjektivem Fitnessempfinden und ovarieller Erschöpfung noch eklatanter ausfallen: Frauen, so das Szenario, könnten dann womöglich mit Mitte 50 ein biologisches Alter von Anfang 40 vorweisen, sodass sie physisch und psychisch sowohl für eine (anstrengende) Schwangerschaft als auch für die darauffolgende (anstrengende) Phase der Kindeserziehung gewappnet und fit wären [34,35]. Einzig die Abnahme der ovariellen Funktion korreliert nicht mit dieser Entwicklung (hier ist der Apoptoseprozess bisher noch nicht aufzuhalten), sodass eine weitere Zuspitzung der bisherigen Grundkonstellation in Form immer älter werdender Erstgebärender bei abnehmender Fertilität erfolgt.…”

The ‘good’ of extending fertility: ontology and moral reasoning in a biotemporal regime of reproduction

“…Extending fertility is discussed mostly in bioethical terms of the good and bad of whether and how far to extend motherhood (i.e. Bittner & Eichinger 2010 ; Goold & Savulescu, 2009 ; Kortman & Macklon, 2008 ; Lockwood, 2011 ; Mertes & Pennings, 2011 ; Smajdor, 2008 , 2009 ). Drawing on anthropological insights, which consider that morality and ethics are always embedded socially and politically (Fassin, 2012 ), I give consideration to the moral norms underlying these ethical debates which are enacted and negotiated in practices in various forms of ethical boundary work (Wainwright et al, 2007 ).…”

The emergence of temporality in attitudes towards cryo-fertility: a case study comparing German and Israeli social egg freezing users

“… 7 Interestingly, the controversy around late motherhood is also apparent when analysing German academic publications on the issue of SEF (e.g., Bernstein and Wiesemann, 2014 ; Bittner and Eichinger, 2010 ; Bozzaro, 2018 ; Weber-Guskar, 2018 ). Such publications relate (also from a critical perspective) to the argumentation that motivations such as postponing childbirth in favour of self-realization or due to the inability to make fundamental life decisions (and SEF which enables that) are problematic- highlighting implicit normative expectations regarding reproductive timing and its proper location in the life course.…”