Professor Severino Antinori: 'Mother-to-be too old at 66'

“I am shocked by the idea of a 66-year-old woman giving birth,” he said. “I respect the choice medically but I think anything over 63 is risky because you cannot guarantee the child will have a loving mother or family.

“It is possible to give a child to the mother up to the age of 83 but it is medically criminal to do this because the likelihood is that after a year or two the child will lose his mum and suffer from psychological problems.”

However you feel about a pregnancy this late in life, and putting aside for a moment the fact that no baby is ever guaranteed a loving family, for either parent to live until the child has grown up, or freedom from psychological problems as a result of their circumstances, I just want to draw attention to the fact that this judgement is not applied to older fathers, for whom having children (often with significantly younger women) is viewed as a sign of virility.