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DiscussionSociety isn’t working for women
I just came across this article about a woman having a fourth child at 47 via IVF with egg donation so that her 16 years younger partner could have a child. I think it’s selfish. She mentions she had a friend of the same age who is also pregnant via egg donor. This isn’t a good situation. Society is not working for women if women who want children don’t find themselves in a position to have them until nearly 50 and with the help of some other woman’s egg, whose retrieval depends on an industry that puts women’s health at risk and exploits women for their eggs. I can understand the pain of yearning for a child - I really really can. But using other women as egg machines so that you can get pregnant in your late forties when your body clearly isn’t prime for doing that (given it’s not working with your own eggs) is not right. And if you already have children but just want one with a new partner, then I’m sorry but it’s selfish to put your want for another child above the health of the woman whose egg you use and the future child who will have an older mother whose body wasn’t actually healthy enough to carry the baby in the first place. I’m sorry if I sound harsh, but I just think something is very wrong if our society and environment are creating a situation where women are increasingly opting to co-opt the reproductive parts of other women in order to have children because it’s getting harder to meet someone and have kids at a time that biologically is more optimal for the women who choose to have children.