Octuplet mother story
 

I'm sure you've all heard about the mother who had octuplets through a fertility program.

Now it appears that she is in her mid-30's with six kids, and lives in her parent's 3-bedroom home. Not to mention that the octuplet's family (not sure if this the parents or the mother) filed for bankruptcy 18 months ago.

Octuplets' Family Filed For Bankruptcy, Source: Also Abandoned A House; L.A. Times: Mom Had Embryos Implanted; Ethicist Blasts Clinic That Did - CBS News

Isn't this a sophisticated way of child abuse? I mean this lady is going to be(if not already) a burden to society. I respect the fact she didn't want to kill the kids but why is she having more when she can not afford the ones she has?

That's not a fat chick...... It's a baby space station

I hope the dad has an extra clip laying around if he gets fired from his job.


Too soon?

yeah...it's a mess.

i theorize that the lady is not all there mentally. she must have some serious issues - probably at least severe post-partum depression that motivated her to want to have more kids after having 6.

The lady is such a moron, and so is the clinic that did it.

I'm sure they will get the same type of financial support the McCaugheys got.

Them is white babies right?

So wrong.....yet so funny.

Ouch. Tho, the "too soon" really does make this post

SI

What I don't like about this is the media attention and driven public scorn when there hasn't been time for all the facts to come to the surface, and the babies aren't even in a home yet.

If she can't take care of the babies and they don't have a good home, you can bet that child services will be all over it, considering how unusual a case of that many babies is.

Why do we have to make it the public and media's business while the babies are still in the freakin hospital and the family is trying to keep privacy? Anyone who claims to support reproductive rights and becomes a part of this premature circus should be ashamed.

i personally think she wanted to keep all 8 cuz she figured she'd get all that public support and free diapers/formula from manufacturers like is normally given out to multi-baby births like that. her thinking was probably "if i only keep 2 i'm gonna have to find a way to feed and clothe them, but if i keep all 8 i can count on public sentiment and goodwill to provide for me".

My problem is when the public has to pay for her and her children, then it should be scorn. She has no husband, filed for bankrupty two years prior, and has eight more kids (even having one child would be wrong when you can't afford it). The cost of delivering and the ICU care these babies will get will be in the six-to-seven figures. Who do you think is paying for this?

FOXNews.com - Reports Cast Octuplets' Mother in Less-Flattering Light - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

I'm thinking she is losing the goodwill and public sentiment.

what's really funny is reading liberal forums

and reading about reproductive rights in this case

It is inhumane and disgusting that we are debating "what is the cost to society" over a specific woman and her lawfully giving birth. She should have the right to privacy and her reproductive decisions. And right now, she isn't getting much of either.

Again, if she can't support those children, then yes the government should step in. If the system that has or will enable her is wrong, then by all means change it. But don't turn a woman's personal life and reproductive decisions into a circus when she has broken no laws. That's fucked up.

Dola, I don't know what you are referring to specifically, but there are lots of liberals that have joined the riot mob on this story. Hypocrisy, if you ask me.

i'm just saying that i've read forums where women's abortion rights were crucial yet they piled on women who want to have a lot of baibies. I guess to some people that having babies is worse than killing babies.

Yea, I agree, I think its pretty absurd. I went off on a feminist studies friend of mine when she brought up the story on me today with a big rant about how it was the perfect example of overpopulation, and that the woman was obviously selfish and horrible, yadda yadda yadda.

I don't know if this is as clear-cut a case of liberal v. conservative as it sounds.

My mother was up in arms over this story, and this is a woman whose first and last Democratic ballot was for Jimmy Carter.

I think most of the people getting outraged here are probably looking at the fact that she had six kids and deliberately went and used fertility treatment to have eight more (I dunno if she had eight in mind, but still). There will be nuances to the 'rage, but I don't see this as a liberal v. conservative hypocrisy thing.

I think we all just feel awful for the kids, because save for a windfall, it'll be a very hard life for them. If she'd just gone and given birth that many times individually, at least they're be some spacing out financially, but for them all to be there at one time, it'll be like survival of the fittest only none of them really will get a fair shot.

Sad story, in that sense.

But the media's coverage of it, sorta does suck, because of what it'll end up being cast as.

I recall when the story first came out, that they didn't even know her name. So maybe the hospital put the story out, hoping they'd be able to milk the story some too, only to find out it was...well...not such a 'good' story after all?

+1

I think Tigercat was just looking to troll and liberal-bash though.

*shrugs*

Ha, I'm nearly as liberal as they come partna, I am just fully willing to bash my own kind when I feel they are being hypocrites. (And even myself sometimes...) But, yea, the heat is coming from all sides.

The more I hear about this broad, the more she sounds like a complete loser/nut.

So when is some lawyer going to be shrewd enough to sue the fertility clinic? Kind of like tobaco, gun and food companies are targeted for liability in letting their products and services cause harm to society.

Obviously the lawyer would need to identify a victim to be the plaintiff and get them on board, but that should not be too hard.

Now, personally I think making tobacco, gun and food companies, etc. liable for what people do with their legal products and services is silly. But our current culture and society seems to be leaning that way.

Also, when does the ladies reproductive rights no longer remain rights? How much harm does it take to draw a line in this scenario.

Well for now she had reproductive rights under the law. I wouldn't be surprised if one day, for better or worse, we start drawing a line, at least for reproductive assistance. You can easily make the case that one doesn't have the inherit right to reproductive assistance if that could easily do harm to your offspring and/or society at large.

Again, the fact that you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD do something.

I don't think this has anything to do with liberal/conservative. Pretty much all the woman at my office today thought she was a nutter butter regardless of their political leanings. The most religious conservative woman in our office was horrified that she went undergo fertility treatments to have more kids when she had six she couldn't take care of and she isn't married. The liberals thought she was an idiot for getting fertility treatments.

My interest in the story is more about the why and how. Why would someone who clearly had no trouble conceiving go to a fertility specialist? Why would someone living with her parents and single decide to have eight more kids in addition to the six? How does someone in her position pay for this, given that she seems to have limited means?

oddly this story is vaguely similiar to that john and kate +24141 kids wack jobs who are freeloading their way to free crap nationwide (now including a new house worth 1+ mill)

She's broken the law of common sense.

Edit--Hmmm...I see that the Grandfather is a former Iraqi soldier. Perhaps that's "normal" in her culture. :)

when i 1st read about this story on the monitor in the elevator where i work i rolled my eyes and said "oh great, someone looking for a lifetime supply of free diapers and formula". i'm glad the public has seen this for the farce it is.

The story out today just makes it more odd ... her mother says she has been obsessed with children since she was a teenager and all 14 were conceived through in vitro.

I don't think society turned this into a circus, I think she did.

She lost the right to her privacy when the hospital decided to release (which she would of had to sign off on under federal laws) the story through a variety of means (pictures of the hospital crew, her press release via the hospital, the press conference of the hospital staff) the staff and her grandfather spoke out.

It's got nothing to do with "reproductive" rights.

Man that chick is a few bananas short of a split. I can not phantom the reason why she would want to have all these kids when she can not take car of them herself. I am all for a woman's right to have kids but damn somethings should warrant some kind of intervention.

Absolutely...she wanted to be a story, make tons of money doing interviews, etc. and she will get exactly what she wanted.

Interesting that she went this route and kept a guy out of it. Maybe she knew no one would consent to such crazyness.

Octuplets’ mother wants Oprah to turn her into a $2m TV star - Times Online

Any more questions?

Nope, have at her you crazy circus media!

Real life octupussy?

:eek:

I'm not understanding the culpability of the fertility clinic. If she had the money, and wasn't a health risk, what more should they be responsible for?

have multi-births is not the norm. it is actually an anamoly in nautre (with regards to human birth, obviously dogs and rodents have multiple offspring in the same gestation period). so for someone to be impregnated with 6 fertilized eggs, its done more to increase the odds that there'll be one successful birth. you put all babies at risk cuz now you have to deliver them earlier than normal since you obviously can't allow all 6 to be carried to full term. my sister in law did this but she only had 2 fertilized eggs put in her (she now has fraternal twins). the first time she did it one of the fetus' didn't make it past the 1st trimester so she wound up with only 1 baby (she has 3 total).

Oh man. She wants to be a television childcare expert.

I'll let somebody else come up with something witty to say to that.

I don't see her cashing in on this too much. Sure she'll get paid for some photos and a few interviews, but stories like this die off real quick. The lady is mentally troubled and I can't fathom will get much interest from media now that there is so much controversy.

I also can't fathom how she is going to be able to raise these kids. You need full time help for sure and there is no way she can afford it. While their childhoods will be rough, imagine when they get older. 14 kids in the Junior High/High School range. You are looking at $500+ a week in groceries. Buying a couple pairs of jeans for each kid costs thousands. It's just impossible to do this without some major income. Even if she gets $2 million, that hardly would cover everything these kids will need in their lives.

this is just a gross exaggeration of what is typical. we (Americans) have kids for the same reasons she wanted them, just not as explosive. she loved kids and she felt complete with the love of her children. the children exist so the parent can feel better (fulfilled, normal, immortal, important) about themselves.
we should be ok with her motivations, but dismayed by her execution. with the average American using 24 acres of resources, leaving the rest of the world 4.5 acres, having 1 child, with similar motivations, seems to me as irrational as having 14.

Spock out

I have a cousin who has a 4yr old girl that she cannot take care of. She is a single mother who spends alot of her time trying to find a new daddy. She works part time and has no aspiration(or mental capacity) for further education. She dumps her kids on her own parents daily so she can be "young". She gets government assistance for everything including food, house and daycare. She was recently impregnated by some broke wannabe gangsta and is PROUD of it. She is a complete leach on society and couldnt care less.

The lady in this story takes that similar attitude (which is more common than you probably think). They dont understand or care what the costs on otehrs are. This hospital will probably end up writing this as a loss whil she takes here new "toys" home. There is another TV show where the family has like 17 kids. Even if you could financially handle them, these kids are being deprived of quality parenting time because they end up raising eachother. Hell these women seem to only think about making more babies.

They may not be breaking any laws, but what they are doing is morally criminal. They are putting this riculous burden on they're friends, relatives, and society. I believe they should receive assistance because it is not the kids' fault their parents are irresponsible and they require a chance at life. There really should be some kind of intervention in because there is nothing short of health issues stopping anyone from having 50 kids if they choose.

When I heard that Steelers LB James Harrison was the youngest of fourteen children I couldn't help but think of this thread.

What about that one family that had, what, their 17th or 18th kid?

The problem is that we reward people having kids through more money through tax credits, government-supported health insurance for children, welfare, disability (if your on it), child support which can be abused, ect.

When I read this, I heard it in my head as the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"So maybe we can call a truce here, and let this woman work out her very challenging circumstances without our vitriol making it any harder. Listening to her and her mother in dueling interviews, working out a lifetime of needs and hopes and hurts, is just another reminder that the decisions we make about parenting are some of the most personal of our lives; these houses are all made of glass, and I'm not sure how many of us could withstand this level of incoming fire."

The last paragraph is something I don't agree. The problem is, she is putting herself in the public spotlight through the interviews, the parents talking, the hiring of a P.R. firm, requsting $2 million for an interview, ect.

fwiw i agree with you. i posted the article because there was some more info about what a mess the lady is in it