Insane and Unethical

When the news came out this week about a woman giving birth to eight babies, I found it disturbing. As an occasional watcher of TLC's various giant family shows, I have lost my patience for fertility patients who go on and on about their "blessings" and "God's Will". I have my own spiritual beliefs, but I cannot reconcile a world where some mothers watch their children die, other women can never have children, and yet some are chosen to bear literal litters of babies (using the very science that so many super-religious people disdain). These people rail against abortion, but have no issue with distorting Mother Nature by bearing half a dozen (or more) fetuses, many of whom will be born with life-long medical problems. Why is it okay to almost intentionally create someone who will never be healthy or live a normal life? I understand the aversion to "selective reduction". I could not ever choose to randomly abort some of my children. Knowing that, I would never put myself in the position of having to choose. Don't take the fertility drugs that leave it up to chance. Don't let the doctor implant more than three embryos at once. Adopt a child who is being born and has no family to raise him.

One of my favorite author's, Meridith Small wrote an article about the biology of having litters for humans today. She says everything much more intelligently than I do, so I highly recommend that everyone reads it.

All of my annoyance with America's shameful fascination with this Weird Science experiment called fertility treatments turned to outrage when the rest of the story broke today. The mother who just gave birth to octuplets already has SIX children? What kind of doctor implanted eight embryos into this woman's uterus? Shouldn't he or she lose their license to practice medicine ASAP? She and her six children live with her parents in a 1600 square foot house for goodness sake!!! No one has the right to tell you how many children you can have (although I would hope your sense of right and wrong would prevent you from having more than you can afford), but no one should be guaranteed the right to fertility treatments when they already have so many kids!!! Who is going to pay for the costly care of these eight premature babies? Either they will be on state assistance or private insurance. I do not believe that my premiums should be so high to cover ridiculous people's needs.

The mother has stated that she and the rest of her family will come out publicly, "in our own time." I believe that means they will come out once they have reached the highest paying agreement with a magazine or news show. I would bet money that they are hoping for a TLC show. Who needs Jon and Kate Plus Eight? They only have eight kids! They just bought a mansion! Instead, America can fall in love with the ______'s and their fourteen kids who live in a shoe.