Oldest Mum Selfish?
If it is selfish to have a child because you are older than the other parents, surely it is selfish to have a child when your house is smaller than it could be and your salary is less than you would like it to be? However you do it, having children is essentially a selfish thing to do...
On the subject of aged women using medicine to have children, Jennie Bristow makes the argument that having children is always selfish. It's a typical lib-city-yuppie approach to viewing parenting and I believe it's dead wrong. Obviously, children are more a product of biology than planning. People have an inexplicable desire to raise children of their own. It's related to another intangible and illogical motive: love.
Often people have children without adequately planning. Obviously, failing to plan for children is exactly what many are accusing this grandmother aged mother of doing. However, let's compare apples to apples. If a single person, dying of an incurable disease were to intentionally go out of their way to have a child, most people would recognize the selfishness in that decision. If someone knew they were going to pass an incurable disease to their child, should they have one, and chose work toward having the child anyway, that would be selfish.
You can't compare lacking amenities, a smaller home, less cashflow, or even unforeseen marital failings or death to an aged woman planning to have a child she knows she will likely leave alone and young. I think it may be slightly more fair to compare it to single women who plan children with no mate or support structure in place. But, loving poor parents raise happy and good kids every day. And, those kids contribute to our universal quality of life.
Most parents we consider responsible, good parents plan to nurture their children and hope they will be good citizens and close partners in life. They hope to dedicate to the world some better part of themselves through their children. Most good parents tell their kids they want them to be more and better. That is someone pursuing a natural desire to express and receive love. And, that's not selfish.