WHEN women turn 60, they can apply for a free bus pass, they can qualify for discounts on cinema and theatre tickets and, if they've got the cash, they can also become pregnant.
While most 60-somethings are busy planning for retirement or resigning themselves to a further spell of workplace drudgery, news that 63-year-old Dr Patricia Rashbrook is set to become Britain's oldest mother, has reopened the debate about those of pensionable age turning to parenthood.
Dr Rashbrooke and her husband, John Farrant, who travelled to Italy for fertility treatment, yesterday issued a carefully worded statement in an attempt to head critics off at the pass, saying: "We are pleased to acknowledge this pregnancy, notwithstanding its unusual and potentially controversial aspects.
"We do not feel it to be appropriate to enter into discussion and detail regarding our personal circumstances, having regard for the paramount importance of the child's best interests. These incorporate the need for privacy for the family and family life.
"We however wish to emphasise that this has not been an endeavour undertaken lightly or without courage, that a great deal of thought has been given to planning and providing for the child's present and future well-being, medically, socially and materially, and that we will therefore welcome a return to an undisturbed family life, in order that the well-being of both mother and child may continue to be promoted.
"We are very happy to have given life to an already much-loved baby and our wish now is to give him the peace and security he needs, and that other members of the family be allowed the privacy they deserve."
The latter, it has to be said, seems like wishful thinking.
While Dr Rashbrook does look much younger than her years, a 63-year-old woman giving birth is enough to raise the curiosity of even the most liberal of individuals and highlights the social, moral, physical and emotional impact of artificially turning back the body clock.
Unsurprisingly, the pregnancy, achieved with more than a little help from controversial doctor Severino Antinori, who first made headlines for aiding a post-menopausal woman to become pregnant back in 1994, has triggered criticism from pro-life groups, who quickly branded her "selfish".
"It is extremely difficult for a child to have a mother who is as old as a grandmother would be," says Josephine Quintavalle, from Comment on Reproductive Ethics.
"It is another example of a consumer society that wants absolutely everything, one which never stops to think that a child is not a product. She is being selfish, sometimes greater love is saying no."
Without knowing her age, on paper Dr Rashbrook, who it is understood studied in Sheffield, would appear to be the perfect candidate for motherhood, but while the financial rewards brought by a successful career may have been able to satisfy her maternal instincts, money cannot buy life expectancy.
While no one knows when their time will come, when the couple's child is preparing for their 21st birthday celebrations, she will be 83-years-old and, let's face it, unlikely to be in party mood. It's not a question of being ageist, it is a question of being realistic.
"We see this just as another component in our culture where children are treated as a means to an end," adds spokesman for Campaign group Life, Matthew O'Gorman. "Quite simply, the child is not being looked after properly – one is not genuinely having regard for the welfare of the child. He or she is going to be without a mother or father at the most crucial moment of adolescence or when that child is growing to maturity.
"IVF treatment means a child is quite literally a product of manufacturing that meets the demands of the parents, but children are not products and should not be available on demand. This is not the way to bring a child into the world."
While few would deny the hope IVF treatment has brought many childless couples, Dr Rashbrook already has two older children, which were conceived naturally, but, having recently remarried, has decided to go for the hat-trick by any means possible.
Like her, Jan Andersen has had two stabs at motherhood and, while at 46, she is by comparison a mere spring chicken in the baby game, she is in little doubt of the benefits of conceiving later in life, so much so that three years ago she launched the Mothers Over 40 website in the hope of supporting those who come to sleepless nights later in life.
"I had my first three children when I was in my 20s, I had my fourth when I was 40 and my partner and I are currently trying for another," she says. "The second time around I felt much more relaxed because I had so much more experience of life."
This woman is a child psychologist, she's not stupid, this is something that she has thought long and hard about.
"Those who want to pass judgment should be focusing their criticism on those parents who abuse their children, those parents who shovel their children full of junk food and those parents who smoke around their children, rather than an older woman who clearly has so much to bring to motherhood.
"I would much rather have mothers with a few extra wrinkles than those who get pregnant having never given a thought to the responsibility of motherhood.
"I have spoken to lots of children with older parents and the response is generally very positive. They're not interested in going out to nightclubs every weekend, they're in a better position to educate their children and they often have much more financial and emotional stability.
"The fact is that more and more women are having children later in life. OK most of them don't wait until they are 63, but while people will inevitably be cruel, I think we have to start accepting that society is changing."
Research released earlier this week showed that more and more couples are leaving parenthood until later in life and in so many areas of life, age is no longer a barrier. However, when it comes to raising children, we all have a very definite image of right and wrong and however hard Dr Rashbrook and her husband may try to convince us, there's something deeply unsettling about going abroad and coming back with a baby as a souvenir.
sarah.freeman@ypn.co.uk

THE WORLD's FIRST PENSIONER PARENTS
Dr Rashbrook is not the first woman in her 60s to become a new mother. Liz Buttle from Wales, was 60-years-old when she gave birth to a son, Joseph, in 1997. It later emerged that she had received her treatment by claiming she was a 49-year-old widow.
In April 2003, 65-year-old Satyabhama Mahapatra, from India, had a healthy baby boy of 6lb 6oz after in vitro fertilisation.
Two women known to have given birth at the age of 63 are Rosanna Della Corte, of Italy, in 1994, and Arceli Keh, of California, in 1996.
Last year, 66-year-old Romanian Adriana Iliescu became the world's oldest woman to give birth. Her daughter, Eliza, conceived by artificial insemination, was born weighing 3lb 10z, less than half the weight of an average newborn.
Dr Severino Antinori, who runs a private fertility clinic in Rome, first made headlines in 1994 by helping a post-menopausal 63-year-old woman become pregnant with donor eggs and hormones.
He has said in the past he aimed to be the first to produce a baby cloned from an adult. He later claimed that he knew of three cloned babies that had been born but refused to produce any evidence, citing legal reasons.
The Vatican has denounced his work as "grotesque" and "evil" while Ian Wilmut, creator of Dolly the sheep, calls human reproductive cloning "dangerous and irresponsible".
Despite the technique being banned in Europe, Dr Antinori has vowed to carry on with his work regardless. In the past, he proposed getting round the ban by carrying out the procedure on a boat in international waters.