Dutch maternity on ice

Amsterdam's Academic Medical Centre has sparked controversy with a plan to allow single women to freeze their ova, which would enable them to give birth up until the age of 50. The announcement, which is front-page news in the Dutch press, has launched a heated debate. Quoted by NRC Handelsblad, ethics professor Guido de Weert, refutes three arguments put forward by critics of the project. In dismissing the first argument, which insists that nature should be allowed to follow its course, De Weert notes that "medicine always intervenes in nature." Responding to the second argument, which contends that is wrong to attempt to resolve a societal problem with a medical solution, he points out that "the average age of women giving birth continues to increase, even in the EU, where state services help them to strike a balance between professional and family commitments." With regard to the final argument proposed by opponents of the plan, which focuses on the potential risks for the mother and child, the professor simply alludes to medical evidence to the contrary: "studies have shown that an age limit of 50 is feasible for mothers to be, when they are properly supervised, and in good physical and psychological health."