The adults are the ones who are entrusted to leave society as in good a condition as possible – so when children come of age, they are placed in a positive position to have a good chance of succeeding in life. Today, what we see, is quite the opposite. Adults simply choose whats best for themselves as individuals, with token, and seemingly hypocritical behavior. Also, there is little loyalty today between adults in business, its mostly the bottom line which determines if a relationship is worth keeping. This is atheistic in the sense that convenience determines viability, rather than loyalty. You can be a super-loyal efficient, talented worker, and if your company is bought for example, and they don’t need you anymore, well “sorry”. You didn’t do anything wrong, but you just lost your job. Things can change from a relatively secure living to no security what-so-ever. Adults are focused on the adult world, not the world they leaving behind for the next generation to inherit. Any generation that makes decisions that primarily benefit itself, is a generation that is detached from reality. It is insanity. They can attend church every Sunday too, and ironically, do so in complete pretense and hypocrisy: It is certain if their kids made these very same choices visa versa, they wouldn’t like it, and neither want to be the recipient of financial burdens created by a different generation, simply so they could live like kings. If dysfunction has a face, it wears the face of selfishness masquerading as altruism and benevolence. Actions speak louder than words, and the actions we see will ensure one thing: There’s going to be legions of angry young adults once they realize what the adults have handed them to deal with, not our of necessity, but out of …..”better you than me. This was handed to you because if we accepted responsibility for it, we wouldn’t be able to live the good life.” Its the good life at all costs. Take your pick, either we deal with our own problems, or we hand them to the kids to deal with. The choice has already been made. The results will unlikely be pretty. Thank you.

Walt Sullivan

I was speaking *only* in the case of married people. It really isn’t anyone else’s business in that case – it’s between the couple and God.

Louise Le Mottee

I think we have all gotten to the same place. There is a difference between 45 and 65, namely the time it takes to raise a child (mori memento). There is a difference between IVF and natural birth, and between a couple and a single mum.

But the biggest difference is whether we think about my right to have a child or my ability to meet the responsibility of raising a child.

I would argue that that is the difference between you and the lying 66 year old. You had every reasonable expectation that you would be able to bring up your daughter, people have had children in their forties before, in fact in earlier days it was usual. The lady in the news did not have such an expectation, in fact one wonders whether it can have come into consideration at all. It seems to be all about her wants/needs and not those of the child.

That’s why I want to be a bit careful of Louise’s last comment. She’s correct it’s wrongheaded (and rude) to criticise a couple for having a natural child in their forties. But to say nobody has the right to say anything is starting to move back toward the thinking that is right at the heart of the orphan twins insanity. I would argue that your pastor, or best friend, or whoever knows you has the right to ask, “Have you thought about how you are going to counter the possible drawbacks of having a child later?” Have you thought about how to offset the risks?” That’s a reasonable question to ask, just as it is reasonable to advise a single teen to think again about having a baby.

The whole point is that there is another life involved, it’s not just about you.

But Jim, I would have supported you, given that you were healthy and capable. We need to remember that children are a blessing form the Lord. But we also need to remember they are a great privilege and responsibility.

God bless,
Michael Hutton, Ariah Park

When a married couple naturally conceive a child, it is a great blessing and nobody else has the right to say anything bad about it at all. Such “well-meaning” people should probably be put in the stocks.

Louise Le Mottee

It has been written that grandparents are important to a teenagers upbringing and sense of well being. Apparantly teenagers with grandparents who interact with them are better adjusted as people. I know my grandchildren love having us around.

That being the case, I can assure you that children don’t want grandparents as parents. Having both is the optimum. The selfishness that drive s a person to have a child in their 60s and 70s is going to control the relationship as they grow up. The focus of the relationship will be the mother and what makes her happy. That is no life for a child.

Roger Marks

Furthermore, even where there may be aberrations – such as Jim’s mother-in-law (or the biblical Sarah) having a baby in later life – the Director is God and we do not hold the philisophical dilemma.

Jeremy Peet

But you miss the point here. Surely there is a big difference between having kids in one’s 30s or 40s, and trying to have them in one’s 60s or 70s, as this article was mainly about. Indeed, what will you tell these two-year-old twins Jim, who now have neither mother nor father? Is their well-being not important?

And I don’t think you really mean to say that we should seek to have children “by whatever means”. Hopefully you are aware that the creation of spare embryos has long been a part of IVF, for example. Of course often those excess embryos are destroyed. Or are you in favour of human cloning as well – to bring about life – which would also destroy an existing embryo to procure the stem cells to make a clone? Or is it OK for lesbians to use IVF to make children? Or is adultery or fornication OK, if it results in new life? Or even rape?

You really can’t tell me you are pro-life on the one hand, and then tell me that anything goes when it comes to the manufacturing of life. Indeed, as a believer you would know that the end does not justify the means, and any means is simply not acceptable in all sorts of areas, even having children. With all due respect, you need to think these things through a bit more carefully Jim.

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch activities