Posted on 02/07/2009 9:21:49 AM PST by dbz77
The stunning announcement that a California woman had given birth to octuplets was greeted warmly in some circles. The birthing doctors were all smiles, and the media hyped the "human interest" part of the story. Eight babies! Wow!
But behind the high-fives lies a very troubling situation. This may be child abuse at the highest level.
Here are the facts: The mother, Nadya Suleman, is a 33-year-old single mom already raising six young children in the small home of her parents. Nadya is a health care worker who, according to her mother, became pregnant with all the children through in vitro fertilization.
Six was not enough for Nadya, so last spring she allowed multiple embryos to be implanted in her womb. Subsequently, the octuplets were born on January 26.
In Great Britain, Nadya and her doctor would be under arrest. There, the law permits only two embryo implants at a time. But in California, there are no rules at all. Fertility clinics and the doctors who make big money in them can do anything they want.
So now Nadya has eight new babies all of whom weigh less than three pounds. The littlest is about a pound and a half. Doctors say there is a strong likelihood that some, if not all, of the children will experience significant health problems growing up.
When the babies finally leave the hospital in suburban Los Angeles, they will be taken to a three-bedroom house in Whittier, Calif. Seventeen human beings will be living in that house. Eight babies will have to be fed, washed and cared for around the clock almost simultaneously.
Who will pay for that? Chances are, the taxpayers. Nadya has little money and her parents have filed for bankruptcy. By the way, the hospital bill for the octuplets and mom is estimated to be around $1.3 million.
But Nadya seems to have a plan. She has hired a "spokesperson," a woman named Joann Killeen. Killeen has been running around various TV shows telling the world what a great person and mother Nadya is, what a joy to be around she is. When asked whether the mother of the year wants major money to tell her story, Killeen dodges and weaves.
This is child abuse of the worst kind and few seem to care. The taxpayers will wind up paying for much of Nadya's irresponsibility, and the 14 children will pay an enormous price, just wait and see.
Meantime, a callous media and a largely apathetic state medical system will watch to see whether it will be Oprah, Barbara or Katie to give the babies their first starring TV roles.
America is a great country. This is the worst of it.
She seems real enthusiastic...about a money tree.
Whoopi Goldberg murdered 6 of her own unborn babies and she gets a talk show with no problems. Not saying I agree with what this woman did, just pointing out no one says a word about the other extreme.
I wish the babies well. It’s not their fault that they have a nutty mother.
A lot of babies would not have a chance to grow up in similar situations...they would be too dead by now...who knows how they will come out...I wouldn’t want to be the one to “selectively harvest” them....
Why would anybody want to hear “her story”???
What are we all nuts? People have been giving birth ever since Adam & Eve. Okay, so she cheated and got 8 all at once, to add to her collection of 6. Big deal.
Aside from the monumental irresponsibility of this specimen, what exactly about this story is newsworthy? Why would anybody PAY any money to hear — and then re-tell — this story?
Surely, not even the Women’s magazines are that insipid.
Surely, not even Oprah! has so much TV time on her hands that she can afford to waste it on this!
Say it ain’t so!
Angelina Jolie pouty lips look alike, wannabe.
I’d like to see the breakdown on medical bills, how much & who is paying.
Shut up O’ Reilly and go eat your falafel. Oh, and yer hub caps are missing.
What did this women do that my English Setter can’t do. The real sad part is these kids will have heath problems there whole lives and probably short lives at that.
I’ll tell you what she did that your Setter can’t do. She’s going to get the government to pay for her brood for the next umteen years.
It is child abuse.
There’s no equivalency here. Whoopi committed several grievous sins, no doubt. However, this lady is a nutter (in more ways than one). I wonder how her kids will turn out and how long it will be before the state takes them away.
According to a story in the LA Times, the mother has already received over $170,000 in disability payments, for an injury she received working at Norwalk’s Metropolitan State Hospital in 1999.
I could be wrong, but my understanding is that when sperm donors donate, they sign papers that will absolve them of any parental responsibilities. Too bad the taxpayers, who will end up paying for these kids one way or another, can’t sue the sperm donors.
There's a simple, moral solution with frozen embryos: place them for adoption by childless couples who want to try IVF. Giving up a frozen embryo just isn't the same thing as giving up a child a woman's carried for nine months.
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