Risk of non-lethal abnormalities should not prevent pregnancies in women of advanced maternal age

Abstract

Risk of non-lethal abnormalities should not prevent pregnancies in women of advanced maternal ageTo the Editor A n editorial published in this journal recently (Yovich et al., 2018) states that 'There is no indication from the evidence above that the use of autologous oocytes in women seeking to achieve a pregnancy at or after 45 is associated with a significantly increased risk of non-lethal abnormalities'. By this, do the authors mean to imply that if there is a risk of a non-lethal abnormality, such as Down syndrome, that is greater than for younger women, a 46 year-old-woman would be wrong to attempt to have a child? If so, this is somewhat disturbing. In my view, such a conclusion would be excessive. If the worst that can happen is the birth of a human being with a disorder that is not so terrible that it would have been better not to have been born, then surely this is insufficient reason to justify interference in something as important as the autonomy of women. Thinking otherwise would be the same as considering that the lives of people with these types of pathology are not worth living. There is no evidence to support such a hypothesis. In conclusion, it does not seem reasonable to censure a late pregnancy, even if it could entail a much higher risk of non-lethal abnormalities in the newborn.