Jon & Kate Plus 8 Versus Nadya Suleman

I catch Jon & Kate + 8 from time to time. Yes, I think they are marketing their kids. I think it is a total double standard as to what is happening to Nadya. I think half of the problem people have is that she already had 6 kids that she was struggling to support. The other half of the problem is the fact that she is single. While I agree that she probably should not have tried to have 'just one more" as she has said was her goal, since she was already struggling, I wonder how much of this outrage would be happening if she was married. I do not recall other parents of mega-multiples being harassed over and over as to how they are going to support the kids. If memory serves me correctly, when the McCauley sextuplets were born and questions were asked by reporters how they would support those children, the parents simply said something like "God will provide" or "we will figure it out".

I do have a major issue with the physician that Nadya used. I watched Dr. Phil's interview with her over the weekend. In it she says that multiple embryos were implanted for all of her other pregnancies. I believe she said a minimum of 5 embryos were implanted with her first two and 6 for the other pregnancies, with only one resulting in twins. I totally understand that she never in a million years thought it would result in 8 babies. She had 6 again implanted this last time with two embryos splitting causing 4 single babies from each embryo and twins from 2 embryos for a total of 8. I really think the odds of this- all embryos taking and having 2 split- is probably more than 1 in a trillion. I get that she thought at the most she would have twins. What I have the problem with is the doctor made many many embryos from Nadya and her sperm donor. If you do the math, the doctor made a minimum of 34 embryos. I think that should be more of an ethical problem than her implanting that many. If you read the guidelines, the patient owns the embryos. Sure that doctor can said he won't do it, but ultimately it is the patients decision. As Dr. Philo pointed out, what if the doctor would have made 100 embryos- what then?? I can understand her not wanting to destroy or donate these embryos, as they are already her children. I really truly think she figured she would implant them all, have one or two take and she would be done- no more embryos. That way you are not destroying any - you have no control of which ones or how many take and lead to a live birth.

From watching Nadya from the different media outlets, she seems like she is a good mother. She loves her kids. If I had extra money I would donate. Lately it seems like she is shopping around her story to see if a reality show is in her future. Why not? Look at the media phenomena with the Duggars or the Gosselins. This woman needs all the help, financial and material, that she can have. I do not envy her. I would not want to be in her shoes. I can not imagine caring for this many kids.

On a side note, I am outraged that some suggest that she should put some of her kids up for adoption or that the state should step in and place them in foster families (and the odds of them being split up are great). Who is better to raise a child than his own mother? This is a ridiculous suggestion. Here you have a mother who wants to raise her kids. I am all for the state stepping in and making sure these babies are well cared for, but to remove the children from their mother and siblings is not the route to take.

Shame on companies for not coming forward.... I wish diaper companies, formula companies, furniture companies, even a mortgage company, would step forward and help out this mom and these children. She needs it more than ever. I have no doubt in my mind that she did not do this for the publicity/fame/notoriety. Who would choose to have 8 babies at one time?? The fact is, it is done. We need to step in and help her raise these children. We need to look into preventing this from happening again- not rehash or beat up on Nadya about how/why this happened. She is going to need a lot of help.