Responsibility

The news story of the Suleman octuplets just keeps on getting better! Since the moment of their birth, I have discovered a new piece of information about the family on a daily basis. And with every new discovery, my thoughts on the matter change. Let me say, in a completely forthright manner (for the first time!), that I am absolutely outraged...I'm just not yet sure about whom I'd like to blame the most! Like I said, with every new discovery, my moral compass swings from one side to the other. At first, I was livid with the "parents" (i.e. Suleman and her "partner"); then, I realized she has no husband and lives with her parents! That made me extremely angry with her, because now she had to raise these 8 children on her own; oops, wait, new story: she has 6 other kids at home from a previous IVF...so she has to care for 14 kids by herself. Wonderful! Then I found out that a team of doctors and nurses had to be trained for several months in preparation for this delivery...great...let's take the hospital labor force and use them all up for one patient alone. That doesn't sound unehtical at all. Now, let's think about the doctor who implanted these 8 embryos into Suleman's uterus. Which medical school gave this guy his degree? How do you implant 8 embryos into the uterus of a woman who is under the age of 35, does not have a partner with whom she could care for the children, has SIX other kids at home, and lives with her parents? The doctor really made me angry....until, the reports said that the doctor did not, in fact, implant 8 embryos, but that they multiplied after implantation, and Suleman decided to forego abortion. So, she CHOSE to keep all 8 (well, at the time, she thought there would be 7). And most recently, I read that she is now asking for millions of dollars to support her mini-village containing 14 children.

The story goes on and on. Frankly, every time I read a new piece on the Suleman octuplets, it feels like self-mutilation. I cringe, I hurt, I want to cry from inside. 14 kids???? I cannot think of a more irresponsible behavior. But like I said, I go back and forth on the most irresponsible individual in all this? The doctor who implanted so many embryos? Nadya...for obvious reasons? The parents of Nadya for their poor education of their daughter on matters of responsibility? Who do you blame? But more importantly, what is going to happen to the future of these 14 innocent kids who had no say in all this? Who is going to explain to them why they never received the attention that most other kids do? And that is NOT an assumption. It's math! One mom with 2 hands, 14 children, and 24 hours in one day: it just doesn't add up!

In conclusion, Nadya just increased our already overpopulated earth by 8 more children, bringing her total to 14. She changed the lives of 14 people, not to mention the downstream effects of her behavior on society as a whole. I'm scared...