freak show

[hnpcc]

I've been watching the octuplets saga with interest, and slight horror.

Two things spring immediately to mind:

1. Where the hell was she going that they implanted 8 embryos? Talk about "Dodgy Reproductive Medicine-R-Us". I'm sorry, but I really refuse to believe that one embryo split into 8 - the odds are astronomical - or even that two embryos split into four each (slighly lower odds, but still pretty unlikely). There is no way that more than two embryos should have been implanted - the ethical guidelines for a woman her age would be one embryo, possibly two after multiple implantation rounds had not achieved success. To implant 8 embryos is just fucking ridiculous, particularly given she'd already had successful transfers previously. This is the freak show end of IVF, with no bearing on reality for basically anyone else doing the procedure. The California Medical Board has apparently launched an investigation. I'm not surprised.

2. She has 14 children aged under 8. One of whom is autistic. And no job. Some family support, it's true, but even so that's a huge amount of work. In traditional families of 14 children the older ones usually end up helping out with the younger ones (I'm basing this on my grandmother's family here) - I really don't think it's that reasonable to expect a 7 year old to look after their younger siblings though. Even with her parents' support - and God knows it'd be tiring enough just with 7 kids aged from 7 to newborn, let alone double that number - you have to wonder how the hell she's going to be able to manage. And how on earth she's going to pay for housing, food, etc. Holy crap.

I just don't know. I'm having a similar reaction to when the Queensland couple got pregnant with their second set of quadruplets. (Now they have another child, making a total of 9 children under 6 living - one of the second set was stillborn.) Which is basically have you considered maybe stopping? Or, to quote one article:

'Mate, don't you and your wife have a TV?'

(Then again I've seen what's on telly at the moment, maybe he's got a point. DVD player? Video library subscription?)

I don't know. I found this article talking about the ethics of the quadruplets' conception interesting, particularly:

What happens, though, when the client's request shows little consideration or regard for the welfare of the would-be children?

and

There is understandable worry that cracking the door to considerations about parents' motives and capacities would blast it wide open for nasty, petty stereotypes and prejudices. That would be an awful result.

Which is, I think, what I'm mostly wondering. Not that I'm putting the Queensland family in the same basket as the California case here just to be clear, and not because they're a married couple rather than a single woman. More because at least one of them has some form of income to be able to support the children, even if only partially.

Given that I had - and still have - such a strong reaction to the proposal to make potential IVF candidates undergo police checks it seems strange that I'm sitting here wondering if something similar should have happened in California. But seriously, shouldn't there have been at least some form of counselling given beforehand that would have picked up that this woman appears to have a bit of an obsession with having children that borders on pathology?

Actually, OK, what I really want to know is how the fuck she afforded the treatment with 6 kids already and no job. Now that is impressive.

Comments

[valamelmeo.livejournal.com]

There've been some new interviews with her... First, they only implanted 6 embryos, and 2 of them split. And second, she claims that ALL of her children were conceived by IVF, and that 6 embryos were implanted each time. She's apparently on worker's comp or some sort of disability following a workplace injury 10 years ago, which is also when her first pregnancy occurred.

My guess is that 100% of whatever government check she's getting is going to her fertility treatments and that her parents are supporting her and the children, based on things her parents have said.

[vestalvagrant.livejournal.com]

Julie of (a href="http://www.alittlepregnant.com/alittlepregnant/2009/01/oh-come-on-you-had-to-know-this-post-was-coming-eventually.html">A Little Pregnant theorised that maybe the California woman went to Mexico where they'd do what she wanted as long as she paid up.

Another aspect that shocks me, which I've only seen in Julie's blog above, is: Nadya Suleman, 33, plans a career as a television childcare expert after it emerged last week that she already had six children before giving birth on Monday.
She is clearly delusional and incapable of being responsible for herself, let alone 14 kids. Anyone whose fallback plan involves becoming a tv personality and getting corporations to sponsor your lifestyle has a lot of growing up to do.

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

When I think of her, I think of sows rolled over in the stable, with 8 rows of tits! lol... but that's just me being slightly fucked up and revolted by motherhood!