The fertility clinic that is responsible for implanting this woman to begin with ought to be made to pay for the hospitalization of these poor babies… the mother is on welfare (despite her claims she isn’t) and is single, with no job and won’t marry (or let see) the father of all of her 14 kids. They need to start doing better psychological testing as well… she’s obsessed with Angelina Jolie and is using her student loans (which I always thought was supposed to be used to pay for your education, not so you could have babies by the half-dozen or more, stupid me!) to help raise her other 6 kids. Three of THOSE six already are on SSI, they all have disabilities. She’s expecting Medi-cal, the State’s welfare medical insurance, to pay the hospital from 1.5 to 3 million dollar price tag.
She’s crazy if she thinks her job (the one she thinks she’ll get after she finishes her schooling) will support all 14 kids. She’s already taken the State disability program for thousands…

I can’t help but think that we’re playing with Pandora’s Box when it comes to reproduction. In addition to cloning, I think that we are needlessly altering nature’s delicate balance when we allow a human to have a litter of babies. Some things aren’t meant to be changed, I believe. Advances in medicine are wonderful so that we can cure illnesses and prevent PREMATURE death, but when we unnecessarily alter the population because someone just wants even more kids for some reason, it goes beyond sensible, ethical practice. We are already altering it when we extend life beyond its natural limits; why add to the population even more with infants who may be challenged in the beginning, causing more need for life saving measures, etc., etc. Where does it end? What’s next?

Maggie and Asya-

People can’t just do fertility treatments because they want to have a huge litter. The only reason someone does fertility treatments is because they can’t have them naturally often from health issues like PCOS and even Hypothyroid. You have to have tried naturally for a certain amount of time (a year or more), then try meds like clomid, then try natural IUI, then injections with IUI, then in-vitro. This is a heart breaking and incredibly expensive process to go through. No one chooses to do this just because they want a lot of kids nor could they afford it.

If you can have kids naturally it is easy to judge, but you have no idea how difficult it is for those of us who can’t. Science helps alot of us in a safe way. Often without in-vitro.

I do agree that the woman in question should not have undergone this when already having 6 kids she can barely support and her doctor is in the wrong here. They shouldn’t be transferring that many embryos. However, what happened is very, very rare. Most of the time fertility treatments result in singletons and twins – you just hear about the extreme cases on the news. This is certainly a sad case and brings up a lot of ethical issues. If you explore this topic more you will find that most of the time it is done in an ethical way for woman who have legitimate infertility issues.

This was carried out for completely selfish reasons with no regard whatsoever for the well-being and life that these children will lead. Just because we have the medical technology to do something doesn’t mean that we “should”. I am so ashamed of the doctor(s) who made this decision. I’m sure that most medical professionals are embarrased by this blatant negligence.