Letters to the Editor
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Nature
It's a misnomer to state that older women need the permission of doctors to have children late in life. More specifically they need the cooperation of doctors.
That Tony Randall can marry a woman half his age and prodcue progeny has more to do with his own biology and genetics, rather than a societal acceptance.
For example, Michael Jackson, despite being a healthy male of child producing age, likewise needed the cooperation of medical professionals to have children, while other women with only the love of a good man have change of life children despite being perceived by society (and perhaps some feminists) as being too old for the responsibility.
No one endorses the 14 year old juvinile delinquints choice to become a parent, there just is very little, short of eugenic practices that society can do to show their displeasure.
The fact of the matter is, there is nothing stoping most forty or fifty year old women from finding a man and producing a child the old fashioned way. A sixty year old woman may need donated eggs, but a sixty year old man may well need donated sperm as well.
Nature regulates, and humanity violates, we push the envelope, and that is very often a good thing, gauranteeing genetic diversity and all.
However there is no restriction against old women or old men from having kids, it's just easier for old men to find young women to receive their sperm, and harder for old women to find young men to donate their sperm.
That's nothing personal, just the choices people make.