Sextuplet Births Spark Fertility Drug Concerns

ABC News ^ | Updated:2007-06-18 10:07:54 | By LAURA COVERSON -abc bews

[Fawn]

He's right....it's funny how they do choose when and where to use God's Will.

[wideawake]

(1) The purpose of medicine is to heal, and - more comprehensively - to promote and preserve human life, not to kill.

(2) God wills that human beings use their ingenuity to advance medical science in order to accomplish the aforementioned ends of that science.

(3) There is therefore zero inconsistency in what these patients are saying: the inconsistency is in those who argue that doctors should murder innocents "for the greater good."

[Fawn]

Do you think that a person who can’t have a baby is obligated (Gods Will) to use medical science? Is the Christian Church against this?

[Shimmer128]

That occurred to me too. I see it all the time in the forum of moms that i am a member of. I love the ladies, but many of them consistently ascribe to God what THEY want to happen or to fulfill their own personal needs.
I can see not aborting babies of course, but to pull God out and use Him as a tool to get your own way is not good.

[Shimmer128]

No one is advocating abortion here. Fawn is not, the dr is not, I am not.
But selective reduction is science, if you want to get technical. There is an inconsistency here and you refusing to admit it or see it does not make it go away.

[GOP_Lady]

As much as I am pro-life, women were not meant/made to carry litters. Prayers for these families.

[LWalk18]

Is it really God’s will to give a 24 year old woman fertility drugs that will lead to sextuplets? I agree once conceived, they have a right to life. But three of the babies have already passed away, with no guarantee that the others will survive, never mind avoid a lifetime of severe disabilities. Doctors are supposed to avoid harm, and given the risk of side effects, especially in a young woman with healthy eggs, they should consider other options.

[ktscarlett66]

I’m still shaking my head over the fact that they gave a 24 year old fertility drugs after only a year. At 24 she still had plenty of time to keep trying and a year isn’t *that* long to try to conceive. I have several friends who tried longer than that before actually becoming pregnant with no intervention. And they were all in their 30s.

[VeritatisSplendor]

There is a family in NJ that had twins twice with fertility drugs, decided they wouldn’t mind if it happened again, and got sextuplets - fortunately mother and babies did very well.

Mrs VS

[wideawake]

No one is advocating abortion here.

Oh, no, of course not.

But selective reduction is science, if you want to get technical.

It's also abortion and, therefore, murder.

There is an inconsistency here

I agree: doctors who have a sacred responsibility to save lives shouldn't be taking them. It's very inconsistent.

[brothers4thID]

I know many couples who, faced with infertility, chose not to use IVF transfers or ovary stimulating drugs precisely because of the risk of multiple fetuses or discarded embryos.

Women need to be better informed about the risks of fertility treatments. A few hours spent watching a tiny life slip away in the local hospital’s NICU ought to wake them up.

[CindyDawg]

Do you pray for a safe trip when you get into your car?

[Fawn]

?? What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

[Malacoda]

Selective reduction may be science, but it's also still the murder of perfectly viable babies to make the gestation and birthing safer. Scientific murder still equals murder.

It's amazing to me that "God's will" is invoked so often in such cases, when it seems to me that undergoing the IVF in the first place is contradicting God's will.

My BIL/SIL did the same thing. Strict, Orthodox Catholics, tried for a decade to get pregnant and couldn't. They refused adoption because they didn't think they could love a child "not their own," and went for the IVF - and then, selective reduction. Then they couldn't for the life of them understand what the fuss was about.

[utahagen]

I think you’ve hit on the aspect of this story that isn’t really being explored: the morality of aggressive fertility treatments. I have read and heard (from doctors) that it is possible to prevent these multiple pregnancies from happening in the first place via ultrasound pre-ovulation. (Ultrasound of the ovaries will reveal if more than one egg is about to be released.) However, many patients don’t keep their ultrasound appointments; they just go ahead and, well, do it anyway. Thus, many women are becoming pregnant with multiple babies when they could have abstained for a month and tried when the ultrasound indicated just one or two eggs was about to be released. You can be opposed to abortion and still think these particular parents were knuckleheads to have gotten pregnant with six babies in the firts place.

[CindyDawg]

Should you have a car? It’s technology. If you go ahead and get one, should you then ask God to watch over you?

[napscoordinator]

I think this is great! I see nothing negative about it. People complain that people are not having children and then complain when they have six. No wonder kids are so confused.

[Shimmer128]

I didn’t say it wasn’t murder, of course it is and I don’t agree that it should ever be chosen. I don’t even agree with abortion in any case, including rape and incest. If it’s murder, it’s murder.
I’m trying to make a totally different point. I hope you can see past that one issue and address the point I’m trying to make, even if you don’t agree with it.

[mewzilla]

In some women, the ovaries release many eggs at one time in an over- response to the drug.

In which case wouldn't it have been wiser to abstain from sex, lower the dosage, and/or wait for a cycle where fewer eggs were released? Or was that what the doctor advised and the patient did what she wanted to instead?

[CindyDawg]

I can see why fertility drugs would be harder to regulate, even though a poster said they can do ultrasounds now.
The IVF though, that’s just wrong IMO
to place 6 or more embryos and then start killing them. Nature usually gives us one chance, occasionally two a month. That ought to be enough for science.