Late-Life Pregnancies a Question of Common Good

How fascinating to read of the exploits of one Dr. Mark Sauer, a kind of Andy Warhol of the medical arts who assists women past childbearing age to bear--oh, brave new world!--children nonetheless (“A Priceless Possibility,” March 19).

Now that trauma, disease, hunger, infant mortality and medical ethics are all problems well and truly solved, what else is a poor physician to do?

STEPHEN MATTSON

Santa Barbara

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Whether or not one thinks that impregnating women in their 40s and 50s is morally right, the financial costs to society for the work being done by Dr. Mark Sauer are tremendous.

There are some insurances that pay for this procedure (probably more than one would imagine). Even if the patient pays the cost of the fertilization, the cost of managing the resultant high-risk pregnancy, delivery and newborn care will be borne by the woman’s group health insurance.

It is a well-known fact that both maternal and newborn complications increase significantly over age 35. The costs of managing these complications can be staggering. Increased costs to any health insurance plan, private or public, are shared by society as a whole.

Unless a woman has the resources to assure that none of the cost of potential complications are passed on to others, she has no right to participate in this procedure.

THOMAS A. HARRIS

Glendale