Mother of octuplets: did her doctor do the right thing?

Media credit: AP Photo/NBC

The California mother who gave birth to octuplets last month has been under a lot of scrutiny by the press. Nadya Suleman, 33 gave birth to eight babies after undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Ms. Suleman’s fertility doctor transferred six frozen embryos into her womb, while they were both aware that it could result in multiple births.

Many fertility doctors find it troubling that Ms. Suleman’s doctor did this. Even Suleman’s own mother is upset at her daughter’s decision, as the Web MD article reports.

While she already had six children through IVF, she wanted more. Apparently, due to health problems, both Ms. Suleman and her doctor didn’t think that all six embryos would implant, let alone eight—after two split. But they did. And now she has 14 kids.

 The press seem to focus on the fact that she is unmarried, unemployed and living with her parents. Is that the real reason so many people are troubled by this? If Ms. Suleman were married, employed and lived in her own house, would people be as outraged by her decision to have so many children? Probably not.

I’m not trying to defend the decision of this mother, she made a poor choice. I believe that someone should be financially stable before they have children, so that they can properly care for them.  However, this article raises a more important concern aside from if someone can provide for her family or not.

The deeper question here is: should IVF and similar treatments be available to women in a position such as Ms. Suleman’s? If someone already has six children, do they really need help in having more?

The world is overpopulated, and perhaps such treatments should be saved for infertile women who yearn to have at least one child.

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