Politics | 02/04/2009 11:35 am

Octuplet Births Were a 'Grave Error' Says Fertility Expert

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

At first we were amazed to hear that Nadya Suleman, 33, had survived the grueling experience of delivering eight babies, but then our opinion began to shift, especially when we learned that she already had six children. Why on earth would she want more children, especially when she’s unemployed and living with her parents? Those questions pale in comparison, however, when one considers the ethical dilemmas surrounding the case.

Why did the clinic implant so many embryos in Suleman? Was the implantation safe? Should fertility clinics be responsible for conducting background checks on potential mothers? While Suleman has yet to release the name of the clinic that inseminated her, Eleanor Nicoll, a spokeswoman for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which provides medical guidelines for fertility treatments, said the clinic acted irresponsibly: "It was a grave error, whatever happened. It should not have happened. Eight children should not have been conceived and born."

Meanwhile, Suleman’s mother, a retired teacher, told Us Weekly that her daughter’s desire for a big brood stems from the fact that she was an only child. Said Angela Suleman, "She always blamed me for only having her," before adding:

She always wanted a lot of kids. I have been supportive but, you know, now that I am thinking back, she wanted children so much that it was almost not normal as far as I am concerned. I did go and see a psychiatrist or a psychologist once. I wanted to see what was going on with her because she has always talked about having children and always being upset that she didn’t have siblings. I used to take her everywhere so she would have a lot of friends around of her own age group but I guess it didn’t really help.

The more cynical observer could simply chalk up Nadya Suleman’s octuplet adventure to nothing but a media ploy: She reportedly hoped to become a television personality talking about child care and parenting.

Vote in our poll: When parents have so many children at once, should they be allowed to profit from it?

19 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Well, duh!

By Diana T on 02/04/2009 11:56 am

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I just keeping shaking my head with each further development in this saga.

By Green Tears on 02/04/2009 12:17 pm

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Ya Think !!! Poor unfortunate babies, as usual, the ones that will suffer.

By EKA - on 02/04/2009 12:19 pm

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So what’s new?

By Grande Camper on 02/04/2009 12:33 pm

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Well DUH! No shit! Tell us something we don’t know now doc.

By f p on 02/04/2009 1:10 pm

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The more I hear about this story, the more something doesn’t smell right…..If (and that is a big IF) she did this as some ploy to get national or global attention and financial support, she should see now it back-fired in her face! I read this morning that all the diaper and baby chains have decided not to sponsor her in any way because of the surrounding circumstances of her births. So she is on the hook financially to raise all 14 children.

By Belinda Joy on 02/04/2009 1:26 pm

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Belinda, the media is reporting a different story up here in Canada. It says she has hired a PR firm because of all the offers coming in for paid interviews, shows, book deals, so and so forth.

By Catherine Kaiman on 02/04/2009 6:17 pm

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That is curious Catherine. It will be interesting to see how this pans out for her. Here is a link to the story I referenced. Take care. http://www.thebostonchannel.com/health/18635420/detail.html

By Belinda Joy on 02/04/2009 7:18 pm

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I’m sure I’ll be going straight to hell for my thoughts on this woman & her 14-kids-under -7. I think she was irresponsible, her doctor/s were, too. Yeah, yeah, I know; just what most people here have been saying. Well, here’s the -going-to-hell bit: I think that before long she’ll be contacting the media to whine about how cold-hearted the rest of America/the World is because she wasn’t offered the freebies, lucrative media contracts (“Kate & Jon + 8”, etc.) & chance to get the “Aww..how cute they are” adulation that other multiple-birth families get.

By Donna H on 02/04/2009 2:27 pm

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If she wanted more children she should have had herself better equiped to handle them…she has six already and not married and living with her family that is hardly the mind of a grounded and responsible person. The poor babies will suffer as will her other children through no fault of their own..because of an irrepsonsible Mother who seems to have had her own agenda in all this. The doctors have to be held accountable to I would say, surely they must have at least asked about her home circumstances and other children she may have had.

By caj p on 02/04/2009 2:33 pm

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What’s really good about this story, is that in the original news stories, it never bothered to mention she had 50 kids already. We have to be the most talked at, and least informed society in the world.

By albert miller on 02/04/2009 3:14 pm

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In the end we will raise her children. Either financially, physically or thru psychiatry.

By Patricia Partin on 02/04/2009 4:45 pm

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I have read and suspect there might be some truth to it, that she used fertility drugs that can be purchased on line and then became pregnant the usual way, since that, too, can produce multiple births. If Fertility Clinics are so well policed and documented as to what they are doing, how is it the culprit clinic has not been identified yet? I have also heard/read that the grandmother had been married before she married Edward D. Suleman in NV in 1974 and has children from that marriage. We have connected family from the middle east through marriage that claims Doud is the same as David and that Suleman in their culture is the same as Soloman. I still want to hear the mother’s side of the story-she’s saying very little. The children are going to need help with basic neccessities and regardless of how this came about, the children should have support, including the existing 6 children already at home. They have no guilt in any of this. The mother and the grandparents are another matter. It wouldn’t be any of our business, except for the fact that the childrens welfare is at stake and the taxpayers may be picking up the tab on much of this. So what does Natalie D. (now called Nadya) have to say about this??

By JJ GB on 02/04/2009 5:30 pm

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There are reports from people who know Nadya who say she is just a wonderful, loving mother. I would like to remind everyone that last summer quite a few people came forward to say what a wonderful loving mother Casey Anthony was, and that she loved her daughter more than anything and would never hurt Caylee. Nadya isn’t that bad but there is a huge difference between seeming to be mentally healthy and actually being mentally healthy. Also, when she was pregnant her story was a ticking time-bomb. Did her parents not predict the public outcry? How dense are they?

By K RODE on 02/04/2009 5:58 pm

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I feel certain that Nadya is a wonderful, loving,neglectful, clueless, and mentally unstable mother. Yes, the children are innocent and, unfortunately, they will bear the brunt of this tragedy. That’s right…I said it….TRAGEDY. One of Suleman’s ‘other’ children is autistic. What are the odds he’ll get the attention and help he needs? One of these premie babies is “struggling to breathe”…as I’ve pointed out in previous posts prematurity is frequently associated with many physical and developmental anomalies. How will these problems be addressed? What if grandpa goes back to Iraq and leaves Nadya to fend for herself…what are the odds that this single mother of 14 (one who is known to be autistic, eight premature infants, and five other children who have the needs and wants of any other child) cope? Will the bankrupt state of California come to her rescue? Will some media whore like ‘Dr’ Phil make a ‘superstar’ out of Nadya? I would say that she has as much chance of this happening as she does of making a home for herself and her brood in a GIANT SHOE, and living happily ever after! No, this medical-and-mental-health-misadventure will most likely yield a future of difficulty and sadness.

By Melanie Waldrop on 02/04/2009 8:59 pm