JEWISH, MALE & CHILDLESS

Some 25 percent of Americans 65 or older could find themselves "elder orphans," according to a report in Psych Central . These are people who have no family support to fall back upon when they run into health problems leaving them to deal with the medical and social service system on their own. " We have a sense that this will be a growing population as society ages and life expectancy increases, and our government and society need to prepare how to advocate for this population,” said physician Maria Torroella Carney, chief of geriatric and palliative medicine at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. "There is potentially no structure to address this population as this population is hidden right before us," said Carney. "Our goal is to highlight that this is a vulnerable population that's likely to increase, and we need to determine what community, social services, emergency response and educational resources can help them,...

I loved the coverage offered by The Jewish Press , a Brooklyn-based strictly-Orthodox newspaper, that headlined its story about an Israeli ultra-Orthodox woman, aged 65, who gave birth to her first child this week:   "Mazal Tov to 65-Year-old Mother of 'Illegal' Baby." Israeli reproductive clinics do not generally offer free IVF treatments to women over 45 – hence the "illegal" in the headline. The original reports appeared in the Israel Hayom and Yediot tabloids and has now been widely disseminated. So I am assuming it is true. The woman has been identified as Hana Shahar. She is said to have given birth to the 5.9-pound boy after a C-section at Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba. Shahar had been unable to conceive throughout her 45-year-long marriage. Her husband's name did not appear in the news coverage other than the first initial of his name -- "shin." According to Yediot, Hana was married at age 19 (Shin was 21) and ...