Celebrate Lifes!
All 14 of them. That’s how many the heart-warming miracle octuplet mom has brought into the world, with no dad in sight! Because six wasn’t enough, even for a woman in bankruptcy living at home with mom and dad. LA Times:
The family of octuplets born in Southern California this week has a history of financial problems, including a bankruptcy, tax liens and a foreclosure, according to court records.
The 33-year-old Whittier woman, who has not been publicly identified, gave birth to the octuplets at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower on Monday and already has six young children, including a set of twins, said her mother, Angela Suleman.
She lives with her parents in a 1,550-square-foot home in Whittier, where television trucks and camera crew continued to roam the quiet cul-de-sac Friday. This afternoon, the children’s grandfather returned to the home with four toddlers and did not speak to the throng of media, other than to ask for privacy.
Last March, Suleman filed bankruptcy, claiming nearly $1 million in liabilities — mostly because of a bad house investment, her attorney said. Countrywide Home Loans approved a $492,000 mortgage for Suleman in 2006 for a second home she bought in Whittier for $615,000. In 2008, the bank began foreclosure procedures. The house was sold in August for $369,375.
Lessee. March, bankruptcy. April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. Jan. 26, blessed miracle event. Sounds like consolation in vitro.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Suleman said her daughter did not expect to have octuplets, but that all the implanted embryos “happened to take.”
She acknowledge that supporting a family with 14 children would be difficult, but that her daughter felt like she had little choice.
“What do you suggest she should have done?” Suleman said. “She refused to have them killed.”
I dunno. Maybe refuse to have them in the first place. In vitro isn’t exactly an accidental pregnancy. Who paid $10,000-odd in vitro bill, anyway? Grandad’s headed back to Iraq as a translator to help support the burgeoning Suleman brood. So many packed into a 1,550 s.f. ranch. Almost sounds culty. But grandma explains that Nadya, whose children all were fathered by the same sperm donor, had to have “just one more girl.”
And look what happened. Octuplets. Dear God,” Angela Suleman said four days after her 33-year-old daughter became the second person in the U.S. ever to give birth to eight babies at once.
So, what kind of moron fertility doc would implant eight, or any, in a bankrupt woman living at home with mom and dad with no husband and six kids. Hard to say. The doc(s) don’t seem to have surfaced yet. And is there any kind of liability, responsibility or expectation of professional anything here, aside from scrubbing up?
“I cannot see circumstances where any reasonable physician would transfer [so many] embryos into a woman under the age of 35 under any circumstance,” said Arthur Wisot, a fertility doctor in Redondo Beach and the author of “Conceptions and Misconceptions.”
Doctors probably could not deny treatment to a woman simply because she already has children, he said. However, he added, they should have taken steps to make sure she did not have so many babies at once.
“I certainly think you can talk to her about it if you feel like she’s making a decision that’s not in her best interest or the interest of her children,” Wisot said. “You can send her for psychological evaluation, but I honestly don’t know if you can say, ‘No, I won’t take care of you because you have too many children.’ ”
Dr. Geeta Swamy, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University, told The Times this week that the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advise doctors “to curb these higher-order multiple gestations,” she said. “But it really is still up to the individual physician. There aren’t any laws or legal ramifications to it.”
The California Medical Board, which investigates doctors, and the California Department of Public Health, which licenses clinics and hospitals, said no doctors or facilities are currently being investigated regarding the births. It is also unlikely that the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services would get involved unless it receives a complaint of child abuse or neglect.
Well, my inexpert legal opinion is malpractice and prima facie child abuse, once they carry No. 7-14 over the threshold in Whittier. Maybe slap all parties with open and lewd moronocy charges for good measure. I’d advise public humiliation and a child-support lawsuit for the doc, court-ordered psych eval for mom. Also, get the doc to pay for the team of social workers who will need to swarm the house on a daily basis. Good thing Grandpa’s got a job. And thank God this is America, where they can get a trainwreck reality show to underwrite the whole mess. OK, let’s go out on a positive note.
Allison Frickert, a friend of Nadya Suleman, said the mother was not seeking potential fame or financial benefit. “There was no overriding situation, other than having more children to love,” she said.
“Her whole life, she couldn’t wait to be a mom,” Frickert said. “That was her No. 1 goal.”
And her No. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 goals.
Topics: America, TV, incompetence, kids, medicine, moms and dads, money, moronocy
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:04 am on Saturday, January 31, 2009
One Response to “Celebrate Lifes!”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
January 31st, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Apparently, Grandma Suleman isn’t very happy about this state of affairs, since it seems like she’s been stuck with raising all these kids.