World's Oldest New Mom Dies, Leaves Twin Toddlers

A Spanish woman believed to have become the world's oldest new mother when she gave birth at 66 has died at 69, leaving behind twin toddlers, Spanish newspapers reported today. Maria del Carmen Bousada gave birth in 2006 as a single mother after in vitro fertilization treatment. Her brother confirmed the death, but not the cause. One newspaper said she had been diagnosed with a tumor shortly after giving birth.

The births ignited a firestorm of debate over how old is too old for a new mother, and how much responsibility fertility clinics have over who gets treatments. Bousada told an interviewer she lied to the fertility clinic about her age, and maintained that because her mother had lived to be 101, she had a good chance of living long enough to raise a child. (More Spain stories.)