Babies, babies, babies.
For Nadya Suleman, the 33-year-old California woman who gave birth to octuplets on Jan. 26, it would seem all thoughts are about babies. Suleman is a single woman who already has six children under the age of 8, and now she faces the daunting, if not insane, prospect of raising 14 children.
The event marks the second successful delivery of octuplets in U.S. history, and as doctors say all eight children are healthy, it is no doubt a monumental occasion, worthy of the world’s attention. But as more details come to light that raise questions surrounding the “miracle” birth, the world’s attention is shifting from Suleman’s bionic child-rearing ability to the ethical doubts and dilemmas it has created.
Suleman is single, unemployed and calls herself a “professional student” (meaning she lives off education grants and money from her parents, with whom she lives). She used in vitro fertilization to conceive all 14 of her children. This information alone brings up myriad questions. For example, how is Suleman able to support 14 children, let alone the six she already had? According to the Times of London, Suleman’s parents had to leave their own home after filing for bankruptcy in 2007, and moved in with her and her children. Her father, Ed, who is from Iraq, is allegedly returning to his home country to work as a translator and driver. Her mother, Angela, is caring for the first six children – one of whom is autistic – while Nadya is in the hospital. She has called her daughter “obsessed” with children and has consulted a psychologist over the matter.
One might also wonder who the doctor is who allowed a single, unemployed mother of six to be implanted with eight embryos. In Italy and Germany, for example, only three embryos are allowed to be implanted at once, says Robert George, Princeton University professor and member of the U.S. President’s Council on Bioethics. Giving birth to extreme multiples presents tremendous risks for the mother and babies, such as bleeding in the brain, developmental delays and lifelong learning disabilities, doctors say.
“If she went to a fertility clinic, there’s wide consensus from every single ethicist and fertility specialist that this was irresponsible and unethical to implant that many embryos,” said M. Sara Rosenthal, a bioethicist at the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine.
My question, however, is simple: Why hasn’t this happened already?
If you ask me, Suleman’s thought process was not “babies, babies, babies,” but rather “money, money, money,” or “fame, fame, fame.” (Or, simply, “I’m bat-shit crazy, so why not?”)
In a society where everyone wants his or her 15 minutes of fame and reality television has made it possible for anyone (literally, anyone – Tila Tequila? Brooke Hogan? Anybody on VH1?) to get them, is it so hard to believe that people are starting to go to such extremes in order to get rich and famous? Celebrities sell photos of their newborns to “US Weekly” for outrageous sums. If you’ve ever had a rare disease, given birth to more than two children at once, undergone surgery or worn a mismatched outfit, chances are you’ve been on a TLC program. If you’re lucky, you haven’t seen “Jon and Kate Plus 8,” an enormously popular reality show on The Learning Channel (an ironic and fitting title, given the circumstances). But if you have, you know the idea of a couple birthing and raising too many children and milking it for all its worth on TV has already been. Imagine the ratings if you doubled the number of kids, got rid of the husband and tossed in an ethically hazy pregnancy.
Suleman is seeking $2 million from media interviews and commercial sponsorship to help cover the cost of raising 14 children, according to the Times. While still in the hospital, she intends to meet with Oprah Winfrey and Diane Sawyer to discuss the deals. She has already been offered book and television deals.
A writer on AssociatedContent.com opines, “Assuming Nadya Suleman is a great mom, then she’s the one who should be the primary caretaker of her 14 kids. The only way this could be possible is if she … signs that book deal and gets a TV show, and supplements that with guest appearances on talk shows.”
Er, I say we assume a woman who plans to get pregnant by being injected with eight viable embryos, whose mom says she is baby-crazy, whose ability to support her existing six children is highly questionable, and who began negotiating sponsorships and media exposure with an IV still in her arm is not a great mom. She is a product of a society suffering from freak- and fame-mania, but the fact that her actions aren’t surprising doesn’t make them any less grotesque. Irresponsibly and unethically becoming a mother of 14 shouldn’t be one’s ticket to wealth and recognition any more than should being blonde, bisexual and a twin (I’m looking at you, Ikki Twins). While I’m not surprised a woman has resulted to using what one might call “extreme motherhood” to jockey for a TV deal, I sincerely hope she doesn’t get one.
But I’m not holding my breath.
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Reality of raising 14 children
Daily Emerald
February 5, 2009
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