A TOP fertility doctor has called for an end to the practice of elderly women giving birth after a 62-year-old became the oldest mother in Britain.

Patti Rashbrook, a child psychiatrist, gave birth to a son at her local Sussex hospital on Wednesday after receiving IVF treatment abroad. The law in Britain meant she could not be impregnated here.

Despite the parents’ public declarations of joy about their “wonderful son”, Sam Abdalla, medical director of the infertility clinic at the Lister hospital in London, said he opposed the trend towards treating ever older women with IVF.

“It is true we can easily get a 70 year old pregnant, or even someone older. I believe though, that it is much better to have the rules and framework that apply in Britain. Although this woman seems healthy and a very nice person, I hope this remains an individual case.”

Abdalla believes the practice should be halted because elderly mothers may not live long enough to see their children grow up.

A campaigner on ethical reproduction accused Rashbrook yesterday of being “selfish” and “irresponsible”. Josephine Quintavalle, founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said that Rashbrook had “totally distorted nature”.

“What she has done is selfish, it is an example of putting her own wants ahead of those of the child,” she said. “I am sure the reaction from most of the population to this is one of revulsion and distaste.

“The irony is that by taking so many invasive drugs to create a child at an advanced age, she may have actually shortened her lifespan.”

She questioned whether the egg donated to Rashbrook, who has three adult children but wanted another by John Farrant, 60, her second husband, had been obtained through the exploitation of poor eastern European women.

Rashbrook, who had IVF under the guidance of Severino Antinori, the controversial fertility expert, was forced to travel to Moscow for eggs after the law changed in Italy. She had made four unsuccessful attempts there to become pregnant.

“I find it highly unlikely that full consent of the donating woman has been obtained in the sense that she knew that a 62-year-old woman would receive the egg,” said Quintavalle. “Even if she had been told of its destination, it makes you wonder what kind of financial straits she would have been in to agree to it.”

Rashbrook, whose baby is so far known only by the nickname “JJ”, was quoted in the Daily Mail yesterday speaking of her delight. JJ was born by caesarean section at the Royal Sussex County hospital, Brighton, weighing a healthy 6lb 10.5oz.

Shortly after the birth, she gave an exclusive interview to the paper, for which the couple are understood to have been paid a six-figure sum.

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