Mother of Octuplets.....

[EDelValle]

Fertility treatments are not inexpensive.
If she had insurance, it would have had to
been pre approved. How do you get pre approval
for this procedure when you have 6 children
already and you are unmarried, unless the family
has money and paid for it on their own. AND then
the question would be, whose sperm fertilized those eggs,
the article talks about the woman's mother and
father but not about the father of the babies

The entire situation totally flabbergasts me!
Whoever implanted the eggs, would have known
she had already given birth to several children,
did they know that she had 6 children under the age of
8 at home already, (the twins are 2 years old, they
would have been younger than that when they
started the series of injections) and if they did,
what happened to their common sense. I'm
leaning towards the thought, let the fertility clinic
support these 8 children.

[cnedaria]

The whole situation raises some big questions for me. The family sounds VERY wacky, but we as a society are very quick to judge.

But to find a Dr. who was willing to implant that many eggs in one go? Definately NOT following accepted medical guidelines there. Both my kids are fertility treatment kids and the treatment center had strict guidelines for how many eggs they would implant--never more than 3. It was a huge fear for me that I would wind up with too many kids in there at one time. (I could never personally choose to reduce). I was assuming she had taken one of the egg-inducing drugs without proper medical supervision, but to hear she was implanted, gah!

I hope they just LOVE kids and have the money to provide for them. If they do have a big house somewhere I hope they have a good support system and lots of help and will indeed raise these kids with love and out of media attention. And that none of them suffer any major complications, including the mom.

And I will TRY to not be judgemental as long as I don't hear about all this having been made possible from public funds. We made sacrificial choices to have fertility treatments to get our two boys, and that's why we live in a tiny townhouse where many of our friends have lovely big houses. I wouldn't trade my kids for anything! But neither do I think I ought to be paying my tax dollars to allow someone else to have 14 kids. AH, the moral dilemma. I'll shut up now!

[Kellacious]

Continuing Elizabeth's post:

The article states that 'grandpa' said they have a larger house somewhere else and the media won't find them. As long as they cover these kids expenses and keep them healthy, happy and safe, I have no gripe. Although it does seem like she's turned herself into a 'baby mill.' And you just wait until they find out all of them want to go to college . . .

I won't argue that the number of kids present precludes any of them having much in the way of quality time with mom (or grandma or grandpa for that matter). I'm just wondering about the parents' part in all this. I know if I approached my mom in my early 20s and told her I wanted to have tons of kids and oh, by the way, would she pay for fertility treatments . . . she would have had me locked away sooner than you could say, "Boo!" Makes me wonder what the older yahoos are up to and if this is really their daughter (just a thought).

Also, the doctor's statement about 'people wanting bigger families' and 'who is he to say that six is enough,' to that I say: "Have more pregnancies that are safer!" The more babies you stuff into that space, the riskier things get. I wonder if the doctor had some publicity in mind when this whole thing started.

Anyway, I'm SO glad this is someone else's story and NOT MINE! Two is PLENTY for me!

Kelli

[Connie Catlin]

I heard on a news report on the radio a couple hours ago that the grandfather says he's "going back to Iraq to earn money to support them" - which is confusing to me. Does that mean he's US military? Or an Iraqi who's in a high demand job there? And it also said the mother had filed for bankruptcy about a year ago. It doesn't sound as if she has trouble getting pregnant so why the fertility treatments?
Very strange story.

[Ruth Ann Landry]

Just saw the grandfather on TV and he is definitely a foreign born individual...not sure of ethnicity, but mid-eastern was my guess.

[Yoli]

I'm with Elizabeth on this one. Fertility treatment is costly and I doubt welfare would cover such a procedure. A friend is undergoing fertility treatment and the drs where pushing her to have 5 embryos implanted. She only allowed 3 . . . we will know in a few weeks if she is pregnant.

It is difficult for us to accept the concept of large families in this country. We are quick to judge and label their choice as irresponsible. If she had chosen to abort/kill/select embryos would that have been more responsible? I know I couldn't do that. You are probably like me . . . wondering why she would undergo fertility treatments even after 6 kids. I don't know this families circumstances . . . but I am choosing to pray for the mother, granparents and each child. I pray that she is able to show the children how much they are loved and that they grow up to be healthy, prosperous, and enjoy a beautiful life.

Before I get off my soap box let me say . . . there are simply not ENOUGH free gifts out there to 'make-up' (for lack of a better word) for the work of taking care of 14 children!

[paddlegal]

I'm with Kelli. This whole story has sounded fishy from the start and obviously we do not know the whole deal here. My concern is for those 14 children. I can see the desire for big families when the children are spaced out but having so many all within 8 years of age is just plain spooky.