Live and Let Live

At 66 years old, Adriana Iliescu has become the world's oldest woman to give birth. She and her daughter, Eliza Maria, are in good condition in the intensive care units at the Giulesti Maternity Hospital in Bucharest. Eliza weighed in at 3.19 pounds when she entered this world, maybe below the norm but not terrible by today's standards.

Why does so much controversy surround the choices that this woman has made? It is her body, her life, her family, and to a large degree none of our business. Yet it was the topic of much discussion for successive days in my office lunch room. I am getting very tired of it. I mean, really... what is so wrong with it?

Iliescu has lead a good life as a successful author and academic. She was artificially inseminated using sperm and egg from anonymous donors, and after nine years of trying to conceive she finally has the baby she wanted, dreamed of, longed and hoped for. This wasn't a whim of fancy.

There are no guarantees in life. None. How many of us can guarentee our children we will be there until they are grown? Until they have babies of their own? How many of us can guarantee we will even be around next year? We might want to be there, but that’s not always how life works. Live for the day. Love while you can. The same people that would take care of your children, the same financial planning and legal protections that you put in place for your families, all these will be there for this child too when she loses her mother. And she will lose her mother - we all will.

In a world that is so full of pain, unwanted children, abuse, extortion, anger and violence is there not room for love and acceptance? No matter how things turn out, this little girl’s life is worth it. She is here now. She deserves to be here.

Welcome Eliza.