Tom de Plume asks some very tough questions in FREE FOR ALL FRIDAY about the mother of the octuplets born recently in California. I have reserved comment on this case because of a lack of information, but I must say, it smelled fishy to me from the beginning.
First, I was nearly certain that it would turn out to have been a woman who had put off having children until later in life, such that IVF (and the planting of multiple embryos) would have been her best path to having a child. Upon hearing that the mother was 33, I was a bit surprised.
But the news that this woman already had six children hit me like a ton of bricks. Six kids already, and her mother says, "she just wanted one more". So she gets IVF and has enough embryos implanted to result in eight babies.
We know little of this woman...yet we know even less of the father. Who is the father to these eight children? The same as the father of the other six? She lives with her parents and the other six kids....but where does the father live.
What does she do for a living? Does she have any means of support? Who payed for the IVF? None of my business? Bunk.
You see, forty-six doctors and nurses were called upon to help in the delivery of these babies. One must wonder how much the medical bill for this delivery and the follow-on therapy for eight children will be. She won't pay it though...insurance (presumably) will. And the costs will be spread around to everyone else in the plan. So the costs are borne by thousands who have no right to ask where their money went? Again...bunk.
Now...should the babies have been selectively terminated, as Tom de Plume says? No. I don't think so. She should never have had the IVF. Six kids was enough, and now eight will likely be supported by government hand-outs or almost as bad, by the handouts from an American public all too ready to accept this as normal behavior. It isn't.
100% denial of any welfare requests.
ReplyDeleteAs the first step, those who undergo these procedures should be required to pay a separate insurance premium, over and above the cost of the procedure, that would cover the costs of multiple birth situations like this. If you can't afford that, you can't afford the kids.
ReplyDeleteAnd CW, ask your leftist buddies on the eastern shore, do the superior European health care systems cover the costs of such crimes against society like this Springer shoe brood mare has incurred?
The whole thing makes me physically sick...
ReplyDeleteBut what about the sanctity of life? Should those embryos have been thrown away? Should some other woman have incubated and then raised this woman's children?
ReplyDeleteShould the embryos have been thrown away?
ReplyDeleteYes.
Next question.
I loved reading this morning how this case has sparked an "ethical debate". Can anyone give me the arguments FOR this pigs actions.
I think I was clear in my post as saying that the babies should not have been terminated. Tom de Plume has been just as clear in saying that they should have been. I'm not sure at whom the Anonymous comments were aimed.
ReplyDeleteI've spent a little time in thought about these births this week.
ReplyDeleteOne of those first thoughts was, why would someone implant 8 embryos? From what little reading I've done about IVF this week, they generally max out around 4. So where is the responsibility and accountability of the physician?
As more details of the story came out, my thoughts too turned to the father in this story... to date there's been no mention of him, or at least I haven't hear nor read any info about him.
Should a lady who already has 6 kids be allowed to have any more kids if it requires IVF? Now, if she and her family (whether it includes a husband or her parents) are able to afford the procedure and all the related costs, to include the birth and the additional medical care for the low birth-weight babies, then she should be allowed to do whatever... but if we the taxpayers or fellow insurance customers are going to have to bear the burden, then as others have stated on here, I believe we have every right to limit this type of choice, and demand accountability from the medical providers who conducted the IVF.