title: An ethical assessment of postmenopausal motherhood against the backdrop of successful antiaging medicine.
abstract: By creating fertility reserves, women are now able to become pregnant using their own eggs, even after menopause. Multiple arguments already exist against postmenopausal motherhood, most of which stress the potential risk of damage involved due to the mother's advanced age. Consequently, the question arises: Can successful antiaging medicine be applied to preserve or enhance cognitive and physical capacity at an advanced age and invalidate these objections? In this article, we shall explore this issue further and come to three main conclusions: (1) Until now, enabling postmenopausal women to become pregnant has not been a specific objective of antiaging medicine. (2) Postmenopausal motherhood can find legitimacy through the development and success of antiaging medicine. (3) The acceptance of postmenopausal motherhoods in our society first requires that antiaging medicine itself find some sort of ethical legitimacy. To evaluate the arguments for and against antiaging medicine and postmenopausal motherhood, it is important to take into consideration two points more in depth, which are constantly being impacted by both medical arguments alike: (1) The identity and role of medicine itself as well as (2) the normative role of our body`s natural boundaries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany. bittner@egm.uni-freiburg.de
authors.forename: Uta
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bittner
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eichinger
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female; D008423:Maternal Age; D009035:Mothers; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D017698:Postmenopause / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012060:Rejuvenation
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations