Mother Of Octuplets Pregnant By Artificial Means, Now Has 14 Children!

When I heard the story about the woman giving birth to octuplets, I was amazed. My partner and I were talking about it and wondered how on earth the family would support 8 children. Then we found she already had 6 kids and it seemed even more insurmountable.

Well, today the rest of the story came out and it is stranger than fiction. It turns out the mother had been unable to conceive and had her first 6 children by artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization. She is unmarried and always obsessed with having children, according to her mother.

She succeeded 6 times but apparently that was not enough. Nadya Suleman, 33, gave birth to 8 babies Monday in Los Angeles. The 8 newborns are products of the same procedure and are from left over embryos from her previous pregnancies.

Her mother had been caring for the other children until she returns from the hospital, but apparently not after that. According to AP reports:

She said she warned her daughter that when she gets home from the hospital, "I'm going to be gone."

Gone indeed. My question is how can a doctor ethically assist in a pregnancy like this when the woman is unmarried, and already has 6 children?

Now with 14 kids she will be even less able to take care of her offspring than before and I guess no one mentioned that to her or bothered to question assisting in another pregnancy?

I am a big believer in the rights of the mother and that control of a woman's body should be up to her, but artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization takes the cooperation and active involvement of medical professionals. Where does their responsibility for this huge family begin and end?

I feel pretty sure Child Protective Services will end up involved in this mess and after that it will be a tragedy for the children and for the mother. Somebody should have told her "no" at some point and I am amazed it wasn't a doctor who did it.