Woman at 67 to give birth dies, leaving twins

Bousada lived with her mother most of her life in Cadiz and worked in a department store before retiring. She decided to have children after her mother died in 2005 and initially kept her plan secret from her family.

She sold her house to raise $59,000 to pay for in vitro fertilization in Los Angeles, she told the News of the World.

Spanish law on assisted reproduction sets no age limit, but state-funded and private clinics have an informal agreement establishing 50 as the cutoff, based on recommendations from the scientific community, according to the Health Ministry.

There is no US law regulating the age of in vitro candidates, but Sahakian said his clinic won't take older women because "I would like the mother ... to basically survive until the kids reach 18."

When Bousada told her relatives she was two months pregnant, they thought she was joking, she said.

"Yes, I am old of course, but if I live as long as my mom did, imagine, I could even have grandchildren," she said after the birth.

Allan Pacey, secretary of the British Fertility Society, said the organization recommends that assisted conception generally not be provided to women beyond the natural age of menopause at about 50.

"The rationale ... is that nature didn't design women to have assisted conception beyond the age of the natural menopause, he said. "Once you get into the mid-50s, I think nature is trying to tell us something."

"I think many people would worry about providing fertility treatment to women in their 60s. I think as a general rule, to embark on pregnancy when you may not see your child go to university is potentially a very difficult situation."

Adriana Iliescu, a Romanian who also gave birth at 66, although she was 130 days younger than Bousada, said she was pained to hear of the Spanish woman's death and what it would mean for her sons.

"It is a great sadness when kids are orphans but civil society will help these children," she told the AP.

She described her daughter Eliza, born in 2005, as "very energetic and spoiled. We dance and sing together."

"I don't feel I am getting old. My pregnancy kept me young," Iliescu said.

                                                                                                                        (Edit:Ruby)