Thanatological Competence of Pregnancy in Late Reproductive Age: Philosophical, Anthropological and Cultural Context

This article is devoted to a philosophical-anthropological analysis of pregnancy in women of late reproductive age as an existential and liminal situation. Central attention is given to the phenomenon of thanatological com-petence – understood as the human capacity to consciously relate to the facts of death, dying, and the finitude of life, in this case within the maternal experience. Pregnancy after the age of 40 is considered not merely as a biological or social event, but as a form of existential transcendence, in which a woman enters into a distinct engagement with the boundaries of being: death, birth, embodiment, and time. The article emphasizes the need to revise societal perceptions of the boundaries of childbearing age and life expectancy, as factors influ-encing the cultural reception of mature pregnancy. Society is called upon to recognize a woman’s right to con-scious motherhood at any age, thereby opening new horizons not only for biopolitical discourse but also for a philosophy of birth and death. Thanatological competence, formed through this experience, becomes the foundation for a deeper understanding of human finitude, responsible parenthood, and the continuity of life as a value.