Ethical Analysis of Advanced Maternal Age and Assisted Reproduction: The Adriana Iliescu Case Study
Overview
This case study examines the ethical dilemmas surrounding Adriana Iliescu's pregnancy at age 66 through in vitro fertilization, analyzing stakeholder perspectives and applying ethical frameworks. The paper evaluates the tension between individual autonomy and medical safety concerns, exploring whether age should determine access to assisted reproductive technologies.
What this case study covers
- Introduction and background of Adriana Iliescu's case in January 2005
- Identification and analysis of primary and secondary stakeholders
- Technical and ethical problems associated with postmenopausal motherhood and health risks
- Application of ethical principles including individual relativism and autonomy
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In January 2005, Adriana Iliescu, a retired Romanian University lecturer, was announced by the head of a team of healthcare professions in Bucharest, Romania, for holding a worldwide record of the oldest woman giving birth the age of 66 (Muller, 2006). The method administered to her was in vitro fertilization, and the gametes used were obtained from anonymous donors. Iliescu claimed that her desire to become a mother saw her undergo fertility treatment for over ten years. She first received hormones to reverse menopause, then the In vitro fertilization. Iliescu became pregnant with triplets, whereby one of the fetuses failed to progress and died. Furthermore, the smaller of the two remaining twins died due to complications, which led to her being operated on earlier than expected through a caesarian section. Iliescu ended up having a daughter, Eliza, her biological but not genetic child (Muller, 2006). Her case caused an ethical debate receiving huge impressive attention from both the international and the Romanian media. The Romanian declared ethicists were against older women having babies urged for the legislation to ban all applications for assisted reproduction in infertility due to old age.
Their various stakeholders in this situation include both secondary and primary, Adriana Iliescu( the old mother), Eliza(IIiescu'daughter) and the medical team that performed the procedure on IIiescu are the primary stakeholders.