I support women having fertility treatments and implanting embryos from IVF to achieve their family. It is your own body and your own life. However, I sincerely hope no one creates a made for TV movie about this family. There are real, physical risks to the offspring even in twins. I know of two sets of twins where one of the pair had serious developmental issues (cerebral palsy, mild mental retardation). There are additional, serious risks for the mother of multiples, including additional risk for preeclampsia and death in childbirth. The press in favor of successful outcomes for these huge pregnancies bely the real issues of the children themselves and the incredible costs for society of children with special needs.
I ran into the discussion on Free Republicon this topic and it was of course, split dramatically. One side assumed welfare mother plans while the other side wanted to honor her for bearing so many children while her father will has returned to Iraq as a contractor.
I am glad these children will receive SCHIP insurance- I suspect they will really need it.
I rather suspect this story will dominate the airwaves, and the press will track down the back story and we will hear about nothing else this weekend. Odds are good that the goods are odd. I suspect strong religious support for large families, since the mother of octuplets is living with her parents, who support this choice.
I am curious to know what others think about this sort of story as an example of choice. I support a woman's right to chose to not bear children as well, but sometimes that means that an individual will chose to act in a way I find risky to others. So supporting someone's legal choice isn't the same as supporting them with my approval. I don't approve of women who drink or use drugs or smoke when pregnant. I don't approve of women who refuse to use birth control and then chose an abortion- I would prefer legal and safe birth control. And I don't approve women who live at home with their parents with six children getting pregnant using fertility treatments. This woman can't emotionally and financially support herself and her children, and I don't approve of her choice. But it is her legal choice.
Updated with better news links and minor corrections.
Update 2: the mom is the daughter of an Iraqi man who immigrated here with his family.
On The Early Show Friday, Michael Tucker, scientific director of Georgia Reproductive Specialists, says all these developments leave him "stunned. As the story's unfolded and it's gone from the potential use of just fertility drugs, or misuse thereof, to actual, apparently, IVF (in-vitro fertilization) with transfer of embryos, this is just remarkable to me that any practitioner in our field of reproductive medicine would undertake such a practice."
Tucker, who has a doctorate in reproductive physiology, says it's "absolutely" possible the octuplets' mother got pregnant with them by taking fertility drugs on her own without the help of a clinic, "and that seemed the most plausible scenario, simply because the profession, we're policed by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, has focused so minutely on the fact that we need to reduce the number of embryos that we transfer. We really are all about seeking the one, the one embryo that's going to make the healthy, single-born baby.
link
Oh- and they also filed for bankruptcy last year. So financially they are struggling a bit.
Final Update:
Based on this link it appears the family are immigrants from Palestine, the daughter is not married and the children, against all medical advice and recommendations, are all conceived by in vitro fertilization. Including the 8 who were most recently conceived. The parents had financial problems and declared bankruptcy and moved in with their daughter. The Grandfather is returning to Iraq as a translator. The daughter has a degree in child development and is obsessed with having children. She wanted one more daughter, and embryos frozen from other in vitro procedures and apparently asked for all to be implanted. She couldn't bear to kill any of them. The father is a neighbor who recently married and begged her not to do this again. All the children are from the same father. The people who speculated she could have a mental problem are supported by the grandmother's opinion that her daughter was obsessed with babies. Seems like there are serious emotional problems with this woman, and she may also be hoping someone will come out of the woodwork and help her with her problems. I am concerned that the American obsession with huge families reinforced by television is reinforcing people like this. I hope this woman gets some help and then stops this behavior. She is thwarting the reason people have in vitro- to overcome fertility problems.
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