By now, you've probably heard that a California woman has given birth to octuplets. All eight babies appear to be doing very well, despite being born nine weeks early. Only one is still on oxygen, which is just amazing.
I wish this family well, but I have to wonder about the circumstances surrounding this birth. Apparently, the mother is fairly young, already has six other children, is living with her parents with no father in the picture and is receiving welfare after the family declared bankruptcy. The woman apparently had fertility treatments and eight embryos were implanted (and obviously all or most "took").
These are the circumstances that make me question how this all took place. Having had some relatively minor fertility issues when trying to have Emily, I became well acquainted with the costs involved in fertility treatments as well as the harsh fact that most insurance plans do not cover much, if any, of the treatments which can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars PER TRY. So given the facts about this woman's financial situation, I wonder how she even managed to do invitro fertilization. (I don't doubt that she did it, just curious.)
Next I seriously have to question why a doctor would implant eight embryos at a time. In the vast majority of cases, most doctors will only implant three or rarely four embryos at a time because of the inherent risk of high-order multiple births. To implant eight at once seems extremely risky for the babies and the mother and probably negligent. Maybe the facts are not what is being reported, but if it is the case, the decision to place eight embryos at once was a dangerous one. Having said this, once the babies were conceived, I would not condone the idea of "selective reduction" or choosing to abort a portion of the babies. I will commend the mother on trying to give all those babies a chance at life.
And finally, I have to wonder why a woman with 6 children, who lives with her parents, with no father present and is on welfare would even be trying to have more children. I guess I just don't understand that decision at all. This is not to say that I think a person should be limited to a certain number of children. However, it does not seem responsible to purposefully keep trying (in a very invasive way) to have more children when it appears that the mother cannot provide for the ones she already has. Now California taxpayers will be footing the bill for eight babies in the NICU for an undetermined amount of time, not to mention providing support for not six, but now fourteen children. Something just doesn't seem right.
Anybody have any other thoughts?
3 comments:
My guesses are that the bankruptcy came after the in vitro procedure, perhaps to avoid payment, and the high number of embryos was because welfare pays per kid (there I go being unkind).
No idea why a doctor would go along with so many babies.
The whole thing makes me shake my head. I was shaking my head when I heard about eight...but then again, I figured probably more were implanted than they expected to survive...
...But then when I heard about the rest at home, I just didn't get it at all. I don't see how you could give any of them any sort of quality attention. Especialy when they're so close in age (as a whole) and therefore in the "needy" phase all at the same time.
Makes no sense to me whatsoever.
I guess turning ones womb into a "clown car" is a personal decision. This doctor has some 'splaining to do though. I can't understand why he/she would do this know she already has 6 children and no income.
But lets look at the positive side, hopefully they'll grow up and become gainfully employed and contribute to social security.
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