How heartwarming tale of US octuplets became a seedy story of self-indulgence (pix, details)

[ima_sinnic]

How the heartwarming tale of the U.S. octuplets became a seedy story of self-indulgence
by Richard Pendlebury
Last updated at 5:27 PM on 02nd February 2009

. . . It turns out that Miss Suleman already had six children when she went through IVF treatment. In fact every one of her 14 children has been conceived this way. According to her mother, the latest eight are thought to have been from embryos left over from her earlier fertility course. She says the sperm was donated.

Miss Suleman is unmarried, has no partner and no apparent means of financial support. She lives in a hopelessly small house with her divorced parents, one of whom recently filed for bankruptcy.

Her family says her desire for so many children may even be the result of mental illness.

Any one of these factors would surely have denied Miss Suleman fertility treatment, on ethical grounds, if not those of common sense. . . .

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1133686/How-heartwarming-tale-U-S-octuplets-seedy-story-self-indulgence.html

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a picture of grampa at the link, and more details about this bizarre woman.

[tblue]

1. Whoa, Nelly. I was wondering why a mom of 6 would undergo fertility treatment.

She could pass some of those babies out to people who've been dying to adopt. Share the wealth.

[tblue]

2. Check out the related articles from that page:

Octuplets mother demands £1.4m for her story - and wants to negotiate a deal with Oprah

Mother of octuplets 'worked in an IVF clinic'

[LisaM]

3. I think the headline should be reversed - Seedy Tale of Self-Indulgence

Shamelessly Exploited by Media in Sentimantalized Display of Bathos.


Or:

"I Want a Reality Show Too!"

[WorseBeforeBetter]

4. Her story was a "ray of sunshine" ... really?

"Her amazing story was seized on as a ray of sunshine by a nation in the grip of economic meltdown."

There must be something wrong with me, because 8 babies in one fell swoop during economic meltdown does not make me feel sunshine-y.

[BOSSHOG]

5. There is nothing wrong with you my friend

This is nothing short of recklessness.

[Sugar Smack]

6. Bleah. "Heartwarming" is in the eye of the beholder.

x(

[tanyev]

7. How'd she pay for this treatment? Something's very fishy about this.

A neighbour said Miss Suleman had been vague on how she paid for IVF. ‘She was pretty happy with herself, saying she liked having kids and she wanted 12 kids in all,’ Yolanda Garcia told a newspaper.

‘She told me that all of her kids were through IVF, and I said “Gosh, how can you afford that and go to school at the same time?" And she said it’s because she got paid for it.’

It’s still not clear whether she was paid – or by whom. The fertility doctor or clinic behind the latest IVF treatment have also not been identified.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

8. Misspent student loans? nt

[Howardx]

9. huh

did she surrogate then change her mind? or pretend to? the whole thing stinks.

[Believing Is Art]

12. I'm a human incubator! Everyone look at me!

My cat manages to shit only in his litter box. I think I'm more impressed with him.

[Believing Is Art]

10. This woman makes me sick, literally.

I don't have a problem with women choosing what do to with their bodies. I don't have a problem with young girls like Bristol Palin or Jamie Lynn Spears having children out of wedlock. If they want to carry the pregnancy to term and become a mother, great! If they want to have the child and give it up for adoption, great! If they want to terminate the pregnancy and do something else with their lives, then that's their choice.

But this isn't about choice. This is greed. She didn't just wind up pregnant, she did this on purpose. Now her parents are in financial and personal ruin. Her elderly father has to go back to work in Iraq to support her litter. Taxpayers are going to end up footing her bill for the rest of her life. She knew she didn't have the means to support these children and yet she sought out IVF treatment.

When plastic surgeons suspect a patient is addicted to plastic surgery, they send them to a therapist instead of going through with the procedure. Why didn't doctors realize this woman was addicted to the attention she got from being pregnant and send her to a shrink?

She's ruined her parents' lives. She's become a burden on the taxpayer. She's probably guaranteed shitty lives of poverty and insufficient attention to 14 young children.

Any freeper trolls who might be lurking - is this what you guys want? Sure, this woman had IVF, but if you succeed in your battle to criminalize abortion and contraception, this is what will happen!

[hamsterjill]

14. Wow - nicely put!

Welcome to DU. Your post makes perfect sense to me.

To me, it's not about her choice to have children but rather the fact that her choice to have that many children is a bad one. And as you indicate, having that many children will most definitely guarantee poverty and inattention.

[david13]

11. What's heartwarming about

overpopulation. Nothing. The biggest problem the planet faces today is gross overpopulation even though no one admits it. And this woman spits em out like a salad shooter? Sickening.
dc

[kestrel91316]

18. "Salad shooter" - BEST. ANALOGY. EVER.

[taught_me_patience]

13. Serious question...

Should the doctor who performed IVF be liable for some child support?

[Believing Is Art]

15. No!

Malpractice? Likely. But holding him/her liable for child support is not a road we should go down. At all. I think the appropriate analogy here is a plastic surgeon doing a procedure on a patient who was obviously addicted to cosmetic procedures.

[tavalon]

16. Malpractice

[Donnachaidh]

17. how about any of the *46* doctors who assisted in the c-section?

Wonder who is going to receive the bills for this? This seems more like the numbers for a MASH unit -- not for a c-section for multiples.

Hope someone hand delivers the bill to Ah-Nuld and takes a picture at the same time. The look on his face would be priceless.

[cherish44]

19. I understand they're saying they only transplanted 4 embyos

and they "hyperstimulated" into 8. That makes no sense at all. Embryos don't "hyperstimulate". They stimulate the ovaries to mature multiple eggs. Embryos are usually implanted in the 8 cell stage or the blastocyst stage...there's nothing that makes them split into twins it's a totally random thing that happens, what? maybe once in every 200 pregnancies? And we're to believe that all 4 split into identical twins? This spin reeks of booooolshit.

[LeftyMom]

21. You're correct, that's not at all likely.

IN fact, intrauterine losses are quite likely with higher-order multiples, so if she had eight it's quite likely even more than that were implanted. That significantly fewer embryos would have resulted in eight babies is so likely as to be pretty much impossible.

[Matariki]

20. The fact that society would ever find the 'tale of octuplets' 'heartwarming'

is probably the result of collective mental illness. I mean really, heartwarming? Ugh. It's life threatening, not heartwarming.