Crazy? Single mom with 6 kids gets treatment to have 8 more

You may have read of the lady in California who was expecting to give birth to 7 kids last week, but was surprised to have 8. Well, I finally read about who she is and am less than impressed.

[quote]How in the world does a woman with six children get a fertility doctor to help her have more — eight more?

An ethical debate erupted Friday after it was learned that the Southern California woman who gave birth to octuplets this week had six children already.

Large multiple births “are presented on TV shows as a `Brady Bunch’ moment. They’re not,” fumed Arthur Caplan, bioethics chairman at the University of Pennsylvania. He noted the serious and sometimes lethal complications and crushing medical costs that often come with high-multiple births. . .

the children’s grandmother, Angela Suleman, told The Associated Press her daughter resorted to in vitro fertilization because “her fallopian tubes are plugged up” and she had trouble conceiving.

She said her daughter, who is unmarried, conceived all her children that way and has been obsessed with having children since she was a teenager. . .

“It’s over now,” she said. “It has to be. It can’t go on any longer. She’s got six children and no husband. I was brought up the traditional way. I firmly believe in marriage. But she didn’t want to get married. So she got the in vitro.”

. . . Some medical experts were disturbed to hear that the woman was offered fertility treatment, and troubled by the possibility that she was implanted with so many embryos.

Dr. David Adamson, former president of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, said he was bracing for some backlash against his specialty.

In 30 years of practice, “I have never provided fertility treatment to a woman with six children,” or ever heard of a similar case, said Adamson, director of Fertility Physicians of Northern California. . .

The mother of the octuplets lives with her parents in a modest, single-story home on a quiet cul-de-sac in Whittier, a Los Angeles suburb . . .

Court records show Angela Suleman [the grandmother] filed for bankruptcy last March, but after she failed to make required payments and appear at a creditors’ meeting, the case was dismissed. She reported liabilities of $981,371, mostly money owed on two houses she owns in Whittier. . .[/quote]

google.com/hostednews/ap/art … QD961UN600

Yes.
Crazy.

Crazy, and somewhat selfish. Not to mention the fact that now all her other kids will get less and less of a pie that’s already too small.

Whilst it may be many women’s desire to have children, i don’t think it should be their right to have as many as they can pop out from some kind of baby factory, nor was it ethical for some lab to assist her with fertility treatments. what does she see as her place in life: a puppy farmer?

:astonished: How can she possibly afford them all?

Reading about the births gave me a nice warm glow at first, but when I read the whole background story, I was appalled at this woman’s irresponsible behaviour and shocked by such egregious misuse of fertility treatment.

If it were in my power, I’d have the medical personnel who implanted the embryos heavily fined and suspended from practice, have the children taken away and raised in a foster family, have the woman sterilized, and ensure that this loathsome parasite never made a cent of the millions she’s angling after.

This used to be a great problem back home, women who popped kids every year like clockwork, ending up with a marimba of 12 or more. Doctors were forbidden to even offer tube ligation as a choice. As soon as they were allowed to do so, birthrates went plop! No one in their right mind, no matter how poor, would actually do this by choice.

Definetively, it is sad to think that there are so many children that would need a mom -an SOS Children’s Villages like proyect comes to mind- and that this woman, if she really “likes children so much”, could have helped. Instead, we have great hubris.

How much do you want to bet that she’s going to try again? And that many groups will actually support her?

In addition to all the other stupid and selfish aspects of her psychiatric condition, to me her choice seems like a great insult to her first six kids. For god’s sake, isn’t six enough? Don’t they fill her maternal needs, provide sufficient love and companionship or whatever it is kids provide? By going to such efforts to have more, isn’t she telling her existing kids that they’re not good enough? If she really feels they’re insufficient and don’t fill her needs, maybe it should have occurred to her (or her mother and doctors) that the deficiency isn’t external, with her brood, but internal, with her brain. I would think counseling would’ve been a lot cheaper and easier and healthier for all than continuing to play her crazy game.

The kids should be given up for adoption. Mommies cant do a proper job with so many kids

I was nothing short of disgusted by that story and that woman.

I think she’s a bit of a heroine. Just think with one or two more women like that the rest of us won’t ever have to worry about producing the next generation. She’d make an excellent example too. Just take her and her eight kids on a tour of some high schools and universities to show people what having kids does to you, and we’d be rid of teenage pregnancies forever!
I say “Go ahead! Have another eight!”

I think she’s on heroin.

[quote]Nadya Suleman reportedly hopes to earn as much as $2 million from selling her story. It has also been claimed she wants commercial sponsorship, such as free diapers, and to start a career as a TV child-care expert. . .

She is divorced and already has six young children. She lives in a three-bedroom house outside Los Angeles with her parents and has no visible means of financial support. Her parents initially bought her the house but went bankrupt and had to move in with her.

Her family has indicated she may have serious mental health problems. Her mother, Angela, said: " She is not evil, but she is obsessed with children. . .[/quote]
www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/ne … 7d987ea559

CBS News

She can’t. No one could afford that many kids at one time. If you are still paying state taxes in CA, take a look at the money in your wallet and know that some of it is going to support her. She can’t possibly raise 14 children with the help of her two parents, let alone by herself. She will have to live off of Welfare because she won’t be able to work. Not with 14 fucking kids. Worse than that, the money that she’s getting for being a human baby mill would have gone to other parents who truly need it. I also wonder how she got the money to pay for the fertility drugs, which are pretty expensive.

As the quote above shows, some of the 8 children she just had are premature, some severely premature. That mean’s they’ll be in the hospital for a while before they can be released to go home. Neo-natal intensive care is extremely expensive. My cousin gave birth to her daughter one and a half months premature and the eventual bill was over 100k US. This is because of all the nurses required to take care of premature babies in neonatal and the machines that they are hooked up to.

What pisses me off about the latest link that Mother Theresa posted is that this lady thinks she just won the lottery. “Childcare expert” my ass. I would bet the entire reason she thinks she can get all the fame, the book deals and everything else is because of the “Jeff and Kate Plus 8” show. If you haven’t heard of it, basically the parents had twin girls and wanted one more child to have a total of three and then stop. She had to use fertilization drugs and then eventually invitro fertilization and all the eggs developed. Rather than selectively aborting some, Kate decided to keep them (or let God/Nature/her body) decide to miscarry them. She ended up giving birth to all 6 of the kids, but then they were stuck with how to pay for them. Luckily lots of donations came in, along with the show, which allowed them to afford all the necessities for the children.

Still the lady from Whittier disgusts me. I second what Omniloquacious says and raise one. I hope they sterilized her so she can’t have any more. This lady needs to be committed, not out popping out babies that my tax dollars are going to have to pay for. The best thing for the children’s sake is to get Child Services in there and remove them from her custody. Find some nice families to take care of the children, and hopefully the poor kids won’t develop any major defects.

Sterilizing her would be illegal.

My great grandmother had eleven surviving children. She managed fine and was not mentally ill, on drugs, a drain on the wealth of Scotland, or of low morals or intelligence. She produced engineers, a novelist, a journalist, three housewives, a teacher, a university lecturer and a businesswoman. The businesswoman produced a nurse and a hairdresser. They produced a train driver, an architect, a musician, a teacher and a lawyer. The train driver, architect, musician, teacher and lawyer haven’t produced anyone because they have been conditioned to believe childbirth without more money and preparation than a moon mission is bad.

‘String the sluts up!’ say our proddy overlords! I’m certainly not going to give birth, so I’m glad some daft Yank is taking one (eight) for the team.

[quote=“Buttercup”]My great grandmother had eleven surviving children. She managed fine and was not mentally ill, on drugs, a drain on the wealth of Scotland, or of low morals or intelligence. She produced engineers, a novelist, a journalist, three housewives, a teacher, a university lecturer and a businesswoman. The businesswoman produced a nurse and a hairdresser. They produced a train driver, an architect, a musician, a teacher and a lawyer. The train driver, architect, musician, teacher and lawyer haven’t produced anyone because they have been conditioned to believe childbirth without more money and preparation than a moon mission is bad.

‘String the sluts up!’ say our proddy overlords! I’m certainly not going to give birth, so I’m glad some daft Yank is taking one (eight) for the team.[/quote]

You’re great grandmother was also a product of a different time and different generation. That makes it a far different sort of comparison. I’m glad that she had 11 surviving children who themselves had children who went on to do great things. I would also assume that she didn’t have all 11 at one time, and as time went on the older ones could help look after some of the younger ones.

This is a different situation than your great grandmother went through. At that time what were the government support systems like for mothers in Scotland? Could she get food stamps for the children? Could she get a welfare check to make sure that they had clothing for school? Were they required to go to school? What were the other social institutions like? How prevalent was birth control and what sort of methods were considered acceptable by the social institutions like say churches?

This lady had a choice to go for a 7th kid after having 6 already. She ended up with 8 more by choice or by ignorance. Now she’ll have 8 diapers to change, 8 crying babies to feed and more noise than a rock concert.

Sterilizing her would be illegal.[/quote]

Yeah you’re right, and I went over the line. Still though, if this lady wouldn’t stop at 6, and now is at 14 children, will she stop now (without forced sterilization)? She somehow tricked a fertilization specialist to let her have a few more. You’d think the number of specialists in that area is rather small and someone would say “wait I remember when she was here last year and had 6 kids!”

Yes, I understand, lbksig. I just don’t think it’s that big a deal. They’ll get by, and their lives won’t be that horrific. Splitting up multiple birth siblings and having them adopted out is barbaric.

So their parent is an idiot and they have no money. Just like 95% of the world’s children.

Fascinating article from the OB-Gyn’s point of view. There is a quote here that is right on the money:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/182355/page/3

Medicine and religion: always a bad combination.

Ok, we were all wrong. I came home early from work today, poured myself a drink (or two) and sat down to watch Larry King interviewing the publicist (PR lady) for the mother of 14. I changed my mind. The mom is bright, well educated, rational, has everything completely under control, will have no trouble raising the kids without resorting to public assistance, and she has no interest in making money off the deal.

It’s really a heartwarming story. :hubba:

Larry King? PR woman?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

I am certain the recent surge of IVF-induced multiple births is directly related to this godawful monstrosity of a reality show: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_&_Kate_Plus_8