67 too old to give birth says Italian fertility doctor

ROME, Jan 3 (Reuters) Having a baby at 67 is too old, according to an Italian doctor who helped a British woman of 63 give birth last year and has made a controversial career out of boosting the fertility of older women.

Severino Antinori said a Spanish woman who gave birth to twins on Saturday at 67, four years older than Britain's oldest new mother and one year older than the existing world record, was beyond the age he considers acceptable.

''What's happened in Spain is reprehensible,'' Antinori was quoted as saying in La Stampa daily yesterday. ''Having a baby isn't like drinking a glass of water, there are criteria, and one of these is an age limit.'' ''The aim isn't to make babies which will soon become orphans.'' Antinori's controversial work in reproduction was one of the factors that forced Italy to make tough rules limiting access to IVF treatments and he now works in Ukraine where he says he has been forced into ''exile'' by the laws in his home country.

He once claimed to have made three women pregnant with cloned embryos, although he gave no evidence.

REUTERS AKJ HS0830