Woman who lied about age is the world's oldest mother

A 63-year-old California woman who lied about her age to receive in vitro fertilisation treatment has become the world's oldest mother, after giving birth to a healthy girl last year, it was revealed yesterday.

Her case reopens the debate over so-called "test tube granny mums" but British fertility experts yesterday warned that to deny treatment solely on the grounds of age was "neither possible or desirable".

In this case, the woman, who has not been named, was well past menopause and became pregnant with an egg donated by another woman, but fertilised with her 60-year-old husband's sperm. She gave birth last November to a 6lb 2oz girl by Caesarian section and then breast-fed the infant.

The woman, a Filipino-American, deceived the clinic even though it put her through a rigorous physical check. In a statement, the clinic added: "Had the individual disclosed her actual age she would not have qualified for treatment, since the programme uses an arbitrary upper age limit of 55." Before her, the oldest-mother record was held by an Italian, who was only a few months younger at 62 when she gave birth in 1994.

While menopause denies women the ability to conceive normally from their own eggs, it would seem that for as long as they are physically strong and they have a healthy uterus, they can have a child from an egg fertilised in vitro.

A spokeswoman for the British Medical Association said patients should not be denied treatment on the grounds of age or sex, but the best interests of the child should be paramount.

Dr Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics said that if a woman gave birth at 63 "there [is] considerable likelihood one or other parent will die when the child is still in the teenage years".

In the past the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has said that, in general, women in their fifties should not be given treatment because of the difficulties children would face. But Susan Rice, chief executive of Issue, the national fertility association, said yesterday: "Chronological age is not an indication of physical age or condition and it is not possible or desirable to make hard and fast rules saying people over a certain age cannot be treated."