California Medical Board Probes Octuplet Birth

[Shakespeare]

Glad to read this.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/05/national/a180359S45.DTL&tsp=1

The Medical Board of California is investigating whether there were any violations by a fertility doctor who helped a woman become pregnant with the octuplets born last month.

Board spokeswoman Candis Cohen says the board will determine whether there was a violation of medical standards. The board has not identified who is under investigation or where the fertility treatment was performed.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. It'd be good if a few doctors lost their licenses over this nt

[Donnachaidh]

9. perhaps a few of the 46 attending the birth?

That was obscene.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. I think it would be a great lesson nt

[Horse with no Name]

11. They had nothing to do with it--they were just stuck with the byproducts

Once the babies were implanted, it is NECESSARY to have that many attend that large of a birth because of the complications involved and the high likelihood of the need to resuscitate one or more infants.

[kestrel91316]

20. There weren't 46 DOCTORS, there was a medical team of 46.

Obscene anyway, I know. But they weren't all or even mostly doctors.

[TimesSquareCowboy]

2. An octuplet is part of a sonnet, right, Shakespeare?

[TechBear_Seattle]

8. Nope, that word is octave, not octuplet

Italian sonnets are made up of an octave (two four line stanzas) and a sestet (two three line stanzas.) The English sonnet is made up of three quatrains (stanzas with four lines each) and a couplet (with only two lines.)

[BrklynLiberal]

3. "whether there were any violations by a fertility doctor"-- DUH!!!

Whoever did this, and the previous 6 IVFs, should be tossed out of the medical profession, their assets should be confiscated to pay for the upbringing of these children, and maybe they should spend some time in jail.

They are just as bad, if not worse, than those plastic surgeons who will do anything they are asked as long as they are paid for it.

[earth mom]

4. Good. The mom was on the Today show this morning and she made no sense to me.

They also said that she wants to go back to school next fall. :wtf:

The interview is going to be continued on Monday, where she will no doubt sound even more nutso. :yoiks:

[LynneSin]

7. And who takes care of 14 kids under age 7

Seriously, the grandparents should have stepped in at some point and said "NO MORE"

[LynneSin]

5. This woman was suffering severe depression - fertility was NOT the answer

And she now has 14 kids.

At what point does a doctor say that we aren't making an idea situation enabling this woman's illness.

I could see perhaps helping her have one or 2 but she had 6 kids under the age of 7 - shouldn't doctors be questioning what they are doing? The woman has kids, she needs to take care of those who have been born - not breeding more.

[EFerrari]

13. This is a perfect example of how people with mental illness

Can fall through the cracks (Cracks, hell, they're Black Holes) and it impacts a lot of people around them in this state.

When I tried to take Doug to the biggest clinic in this state, I left with the impression they should be shut down before they killed someone.

And peripheral professionals don't seem particularly motivated to be responsible for their interactions with these people.

[Donnachaidh]

23. can you really call this a *fall* through the crack, though?

She was (and is, IIRC) a PSYCHOLOGY major. Who's to say she didn't ACTIVELY *work* that crack in order to enable the *media spectacle* this has become? I keep thinking of that mental disorder - Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy -- the one where the mother purposely inflicts physical problems on a child in order to get attention for the child (and getting attention for herself, by proxy)?

[EFerrari]

24. I know a lot of people who have some kind of significant problem.

At least half of them are smarter than I am and they've studied all kind of things.

Maybe she did work this. But no healthy person would go down this path to make their life better. So, even if she did "work it" purposefully in some way, it sort of doesn't matter. :shrug:

[Starry Messenger]

6. Good.

This whole thing smells. I'm glad this isn't getting a free pass.

[Donnachaidh]

12. what would actually be better (and more ironic)

Let him/her keep their license but let THEM support this woman - buy her a house on THEIR dime, pay for ALL the food, all the clothes, provide video games, braces, etc., provide all the perks they would normally have if they had a parent who was a doctor. Guarantee each of them a college education at the Ivy League school of their choice.

And oh yeah -- be responsible if this woman has ANY other children in the future.

THAT would make fertility doctors crap themselves into a coma. :evilgrin:

[crimsonblue]

14. this is bullshit

as crazy as the lady is, she is well within her reproductive rights to have 8 children (plus 6), just as the crazy Arkansas couple is well within its rights to have 19 children.

[Donnachaidh]

15. who is paying the bills for the Arkansas couple?

And who is paying for HERS?

[crimsonblue]

16. so by that logic

we should just say "fuck all the poor". only the rich should be allowed to reproduce. Plus, you forget that large families were not all that uncommon as little as 50 years ago. I have multiple friends with parents from 10+ person families.

[jmg257]

19. Nope. Just don't purposely have kids you know you can't afford. nt

My wife is 1 of 10. They did OK, even though they occasionally did without.

[Donnachaidh]

21. Nice spin.

Not saying *fuck the poor* at all -- try not putting words in my mouth.

And I come from a long line of families that had multiple kids. And if you know anything about history, those families had multiple kids because the mortality rate sucked, and birth control wasn't easily had at the time. Certainly NOT as available as it has been this past century.

Weak arguments STILL don't answer the valid question -- WHO is paying the bill for the Arkansas family? Do you even KNOW?

[crimsonblue]

29. Yes I know. The state is.

but just because the state is helping to pay for the kids doesn't mean the parents don't have reproductive freedom. Also, why are you so "anti-government assistance"? Do you not want universal healthcare, better schools, roads, and cheaper gas? Wtf mate.

[treestar]

25. Yeah, so few people do this, it's not worth worrying over the

financial angle. There's a slippery slope to controlling how many kids the poor can have.

[foxfeet]

18. This is not about HER.

It's about the possible violation of the medical standard of care and is therefore a licensing issue for the physician(s) involved.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. Multiple births are more dangerous, for mother and babies

Doctors and the HFEA warn that the higher the number of embryos transferred per IVF cycle the greater the risk of multiple births, which in turn increases the possibility of premature births, cerebral palsy, low birth weight and other complications for both mother and child. Research has shown that twins are four times more likely to be stillborn or die in their first week than single births, the risks for triplets are seven times higher. In Britain, 26 per cent of successful fertility procedures results in twins, compared with 31.7 per cent in the US.

Dr David Adamson, the vice-president of ASRM and chair of ICMART, criticised Britain and other European countries for their current policy. He commented, 'I think it has probably resulted in having fewer multiples but also results in some women with poorer prognosis receiving fewer embryos than would be appropriate to optimise their chances of pregnancy.' Dr Adamson believes the decision as to how many embryos to implant should be left to doctors, 'Single-embryo transfer can be an excellent option for younger women with a good prognosis, but setting a limit of one embryo is not appropriate clinical care for all patients.'

John Paul Maytum, of the HFEA, responded by saying that, 'Our primary role as fertility regulator is to ensure that IVF treatment is as safe as possible. We know that having multiple births is the single biggest risk of IVF, both to mothers and to the children. The actions we have taken over recent years have reduced this risk dramatically.'

http://www.ivf.net/ivf/us_fertility_expert_condemns_policy_limiting_embryo_transfer-o1702.html

Implanting 6 embryos (which is what I've heard was done) is going to be very high risk. When the mother already has 6 young children, it seems highly irresponsible to endanger her and the new babies like that.

[otohara]

30. Preemies Tend To Have Multi Health Problems

This lonely, depressed woman got her big family - and The State of CA will likely pay for her brood for many years to come.

For people like me, who had only "one" child to help the already overcrowded planet, this kind of selfishness pisses me off.

[Shakespeare]

26. Implanting that many embryos is dangerous to the mother (and babies), and unethical.

This is absolutely an issue of medical ethics, and has nothing to do with reproductive rights. The doctor who gave her the fertility treatments exhibited a shocking lack of professional responsbility.

And so the medical board is investigating, as well they should.

[crimsonblue]

27. It's SOP to implant more than one embryo

because not all of them will take.

[Shakespeare]

28. You might want to have a clue what you're talking about before you decide to argue.

Have you ever undergone fertility treatments? I have. It's SOP to implant approx. 3 embryos at one time--NOT EIGHT.

Educate yourself, and THEN come back and argue.

[LynneSin]

31. Oh you are so far off base you aren't even in the right ballpark

As critical as I am with the Duggar family there is a BIG HUGE MAJOR OBVIOUS difference between the Duggars and this crazy woman.

The Duggars have done all 18 of their kids naturally. It's one thing if you can have those children when little assistance outside of what they have done on their own. This lady sought out fertility treatment time and time again demanding to be made pregnant even after having 6 kids under the ages of 7.

If this crazy woman was meant to have a large family like the Duggars it would have happened on it's own. Doctors are not there to fulfill every crazy persons demands - sometimes the demands are not reasonable!

[defendandprotect]

17. Birth control has brought birth rates down --- sperm count is down ....

Fertility treatment is the male hierarchy's response to both of those ---

If most women stop having babies/labor --- well, then, have one in every ten

women deliver a litter of a dozen!