Opinion of people having children when they are past middle age?

[Virginiá]

Outside of adoption, this is less applicable to women as their ability to have children begins to rapidly decline after age 35. However, men can still have children at an old age with younger partners. This question also applies to adopting at an older age, but minus #2 below. My issues with this:

1. Having a child at such an older age effectively deprives the child of having one or more parent around when they grow up. If a 50 year old man has a child, by the time that child graduates college, the father will be around 72, with not much time left on the clock. Compare to parents in their mid 20s when they have that child - they will be somewhere in their mid-late 40s when that child graduates High School, and thus can actually be there for their child as they grow, and participate in ways that a very old person (70+) can't. It is unfair to do this to a child imo.

2. Children born to older parents are a higher risk of being born with defects. For instance:

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Edit: Not saying people must have a kid in their 20s - in their 30s is also fine.

[Virginiá]

I don't think we should pass a blanket judgment on people who might each have their own reasons and come from situations we don't understand, but yeah, I guess it's usually not a great idea.

That's true. This is mostly directed at people who make a conscious choice to have a child under these parameters. Accidentally getting pregnant but being strongly pro-life I suppose would be acceptable but it doesn't change the issues at hand.

[Virginiá]

It is not a certainty that children born to older parents are less healthy in general.  You point out an in increase in the likelihood certain chromosomal disorders in children born to older mothers, but these problems are not encountered by most women in this age range (1 in 100 is very small!)  The CDC also has reported that older mothers are 40 percent less likely to have babies with major congenital malformations.  

I only meant to point out a risk - not definitively or anything. My main focus was the possibility of not having one or even both parents around later in life. Admittedly my opinion here is biased for personal reasons.

[Virginiá]

You can't possibly expect people to be equipped and secure enough to have children in their 20s, right? Surely, that is far more worthy of judgement.

Probably not. In their 30s would also be fine, though. It was more regarding parent(s) nearing 50 or more. I strongly dislike the idea of a child entering adulthood just as one or more of their parents are just about out the door, so to speak.

[Virginiá]

... So being pro-choice makes certain circumstances where you should abort your own child?

I was trying to say that from my perspective, in a situation such as, say, a really old man (60+) accidentally getting his much younger wife/gf pregnant, I would hope one considers all options knowing the possible health risks and issues with the child actually having parents be there for them as they grow up. It wasn't meant to suggest some sort of "MUST ABORT" view. As I stated before I don't like the idea of a child coming into this world when one or even both parents will likely pass away or be close to it before the child is barely out of college. It just doesn't seem fair to me to deprive the child of one or more parent(s) for basically most of their life.

Of course I don't really butt heads with those who disagree. Having children is tough, especially these days, and things don't always work out perfectly, but suffice to say I do have reservations about much older parent(s).