Mother of Octuplets Harshly Judged for Having Six Previous Children
Suleman, a single mother of six children aged two to seven, decided to undergo another round of in-vitro fertilization in an attempt to have one more child according her father. Her mother, Angela Suleman, is currently watching Nadya's six other children until she returns home from the hospital. According to an Associated Press interview, the mother won't be around to help and accused her daughter of being obsessed with having children.
Comments attached to online articles are scathing and ruthless. People are coming out of the woodwork suggesting that Suleman should have reduced the number of babies she was carrying, while others complain about how much of a tax burden these eight babies will be over the next eighteen years.
Suddenly, people think it's okay to abort babies. Where did this sudden shift come from? To answer my own question, it's apparent that in this time of recession in America, a public tax burden trumps good Christian values.
It all comes down to money in today's economy. Celebrities are buying economical cars, five star resorts and cruise lines are slashing their prices left and right, and now it's fashionable for Americans to tell a woman what to do with her uterus and its inhabitants if they feel personally burdened or disgusted. I'm practically swimming in the irony as I write this, because up until now, Christian conservatives would have been up in arms over talk of fetus reduction.
What's more disturbing is how people are overlooking the possibility that this woman has some sort of mental condition that compels her to have so many children. In a recent CBS report, Nadya's mother said her desire to have many children started when she was thirteen. Knowing this isn't normal, people are still lashing out at this poor woman, before she even has a chance to heal. She probably needs counseling or some other form of help, but really, who are we to judge?
If anyone in this situation is to be scrutinized, it should be Suleman's fertility doctor. Any reasonable doctor who took the time to do a full family history on this woman would have seen red flags. The mom wasn't married, she had six previous children through in-vitro fertilization (five out of wedlock according to her mother), she abandoned a house over a year ago, had filed for bankruptcy. Instead of turning down her case, this doctor seemingly had no problems with performing a procedure that was known to cause multiple births, especially when so many embryos were to be implanted.
Eventually the fertility doctor will come out of hiding. He might even step down from his current specialty or have his license taken away. But, for now people need to leave the judging up to the professionals. What's done is done. The oh-so-perfect public doesn't have to be happy about Suleman's decision to have more children, but now it's time to let her family and the local child welfare organization decide what's best for everyone involved.
Source:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/31/earlyshow/health/main4766068.shtml
Published by Alicia White
Alicia is a former air traffic controller who lived in Japan for several years. She's currently a freelance writer in California, and a full-time student majoring in digital media/graphic design. View profile
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10 Comments
Post a CommentPutting aside the fact that she is mentally ill. Being a Christian, I don't believe in abortion, neither do I support in vitro procedures (articficial). If she is meant to have children, it should happen naturally, married with a man to make it happen. There are adoption alternatives,too. There are many children out there who need to find a home to be loved in.
Do not patronize any person or business who helps this woman. Boycott the Today show, People Magazine, and her publicist The Killeen Furtney Group. The less money and attention that this woman gets, the sooner she will put these poor children up for adoption.
What many people seem to be leaving out is this: what about her first six children? She obviously couldn't take care of them, no husband, no job, and only her mother as a support system. She never should have been given the chance to be implanted again. I struggle enough with the three children I have as a single mother. I could never be irresponsible enough to purposely get pregnant again right now, it wouldn't be fair to them.
I commented on another post that having the children is one thing, keeping them may be another. Too bad she didn't consider being a surrogate mom for a childless couple. It will be interesting to see how this works out over the years. I hope and pray for the best for these children.
The bottom line is that these procedures need to be closely monitored. No female should be implanted with more than two embryos. I don't think it was fair to ask the mother to choose abortion after the embryos were viable, but she should have never been put in the situation in the first place. Hopefully, this will serve as a wake up call for change in the implantation process.
Here's the thing Nadya does not have a job which also may involve child protective services because they're not going to be playing around if they see she's got no income to support them. The system is not going to take care of her kids and having 14 children before the age of 35 is in fact too much. Her mother and whoever else is around is tired of taking care of these kids and for this young lady to turn around and have more of them when she's got her hands full with 6 tells you that she's not using good judgement. A mental health counselor would deem this behavior as disturbing because a person of logical intelligence would not bring more kids into the picture if they have no means to support. You have lots of women who are doing this and the system cut them off when the welfare reform act went into effect those who had more than 2 children were put on notice and informed that if they have anymore children past 2 the system was cutting them off and the time limit now is two years an
It's going to be interesting to hear the full story on this case. I can't imagine any doctor doing this, maybe less eggs were implanted and separated? She has a set of twins but all her kids before them were singletons. We just have to wait to hear it.
There may not be a whole lot of difference between Nadya Suleman and Michelle Duggar, other than there's a husband involved. Michelle still wants more kids. It's not at all surprising that someone like Nadya began thinking of having kids at age 13. I knew a woman who had a bunch of kids; got married at 14 and said she wanted to start a family at that age. I think her total kids were 8. She was a kind, sensible woman. But as for this Nadya, something doesn't seem quite right here. Ironcially, she has a degree in child and adolescent development. I don't think she has a psychiatric disorder. Her mother has been helping out all along. What if her mother had refused to help out? Perhaps Nadya would have stopped at three or four kids, and nobody would have thought she was abnormal.
i don't think it's necessarily that people feel that she should've aborted some of the babies, just that she should never have done this to begin with. maybe she has some problem, but maybe not. maybe she is just producing meal tickets which is simply unacceptable. it's not the "tax burden" that is outrageous, it is the ways these children will pay for their mother's irresponsibility that are outrageous. and she now calls herself a "television childcare expert". she's not even out of the hospital and scheming for the millions she will make. this woman has a total lack of regard of caring for her children and has absolutely no right to call herself an "expert". she does need help, clearly, but i am far less concerned for her than i am for her poor kids.
Being a Christain myself, I don't beleive in abortion and I don't believe in "reducing" multiples either. I agree with you about the doctor that was dumb enough to implant the 8 embryos in the lady. But it still falls back on the mother and her parents. If her parents knew that she was obsessed with having kids, why wouldn't they get her help before this? You do have to put some of the blame on the woman, no matter what may be wrong with her also.