A Moscow gynecologist recently was quoted in the press as saying: "We are getting increasing numbers of patients from western Europe, and the publicity about what this doctor has done will certainly increase the demand."

He was referring to the case of Patti Rashbrook, a 62-year-old child psychiatrist, who delivered a healthy baby boy last week in Britain, becoming the country's oldest new mother. Because it is illegal to provide fertility treatment to a woman her age in Britain, she traveled to eastern Europe where she received IVF treatment from a renowned Italian fertility expert.

Ethicist Slings Insults

The 6 lbs. 10 oz. boy, "J.J.," is the fourth child for Rashbrook -- her other three are grown -- and the first for her husband, John Farrant, 60, who is a higher education management consultant. The couple have publicly expressed their joy at their son's birth and their confidence that they can provide well for him despite their age, but their story has become the center of a medical ethics controversy.

Though acknowledging that it is feasible to impregnate a woman 70 or older, Sam Abdalla, medical director of the infertility clinic at the Lister hospital in London, has said that he hopes the Rashbrook case will be an isolated incident, according to accounts. He argues that older women might not live long enough to raise their children to adulthood.

Another critic, Josephine Quintavalle, founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, was harsher in her comments. Rashbrook's behavior was "selfish," she declared, adding that most people were probably reacting with "revulsion and distaste" to her decision to give birth at her age, which Quintavalle called "undignified and absurd."

70 Is the New 50?

In fact, the new parents have received more than 200 letters, cards and e-mail messages offering congratulations and encouragement and just one anonymous missive that was "negative in tone," according to Farrant. Rashbrook's grown children and her 93-year-old father are reportedly delighted with the family's new addition.

Rashbrook and Farrant seem to be taking the criticism in stride. Rashbrook told reporters that she has always looked and felt younger than her age, and that she and her husband are both healthy and believe they can be good parents to their son. She also mentioned that they have made arrangements with younger friends to become his surrogate parents if it should ever become necessary.