Hey Laura, embryos are children. I was using specific terminology to make my point more precise. Vague superlatives are for Sunday Night Football.

I’m not happy that her risk paid off because more yahoos are going to try it. Hey, let’s beat Nadya by implanting ten embryos! Once again, although I don’t like the fact that she is attempting to support 14 kids on no income, I’m not going to assume she can’t. I’m not hoping or praying for her failure. People are amazingly resilent and it seems like she is smart enough to profit from this situation.

The risk was unnecessary. The risk was stupid. She could have remained completely adherent to her pro-life philosophy by exercising a little common sense. Here’s a novel concept: implant two at a time over three frozen IVF cycles (it has been confirmed that the six implanted were frozen). Brilliant!

Of course I’m cheering for their survival and for those eight kids to absolutely thrive.

Anon, did you enjoy that Letterman interview with Joaquin Phoenix?

I think both are in what they do to get narcissistic supply and attention etc.

\"That being said, while I don’t always agree with a parent’s choices I don’t allow it to effect my behavior towards them or my care of my patients. \"

Something tells me … unconsciously, you do.

Namecalling, church lady judgment complete with clicking tongues, “Why IIIiiiiii wouldn’t have done that!! And MY choices should matter regarding your decisions because…”

Well, at least we’re all in agreement that it’s wonderful this mother’s risk paid off, and we’re all happy those 8 little lives are here today, and made it through without dying.

(I mean, you haters really can’t be cheering against the survival of these infants now, can you?)

Personal disclosure:
Close family member is the youngest of 14. Guess what? All happily nurtured, learned sharing and generosity, well fed and cared for. Married themselves now, and happily reproducing… Durn it! Doesn’t that just burn your boat, people from large family succeeding happily and healthily like that??? Makes me absolutely lose sleep worrying over the personal decisions of others … NOT!

Sleep well everyone!

It’s incomprehensible that she will ever be able to play “catch up” she will never be able to completely do this on her own financially or otherwise. I think I’m angrier with her doctor because it’s obvious this woman is not mentally stable and for a physician who takes an oath to protect and save lives has created a life-threatening situation for those children and for Nadya herself.

As far as her family is concerned I don’t know why they didn’t step in earlier…it seems like they have been enabling her all this time. After the fourth my mom would have sent me to a mental hospital for treatment. She has a dangerous addiction it’s so obvious.

PS – well written article!!

Nadya *is* a convenient distraction. But that doesn’t make her any less wrong than the bankers like you’re trying to insinuate. A convenient target doesn’t mean an innocent target. Ironically, it’s Nadya’s mentality that the greedy bankers share too that caused a larger scale failure since Nadya is only one person while the bankers are an industry. Neither is in the right and the mentality both have needs to be fixed. When did someone else’s mistakes become an excuse for Nadya’s? These aren’t mutually exclusive concepts.

I’m starting to think anonymous isn’t a troller. Just a dunce who thinks he has the answers. Hey Christine Frias, can you change the article title to “anonymous’s story doesn’t add up, logic immensely flawed”?

I don’t quite get your strange “risk is everywhere” argument. Yes every pregnancy is a risk. And I know better than most that no one is entitled to a perfect pregnancy or birth. In fact I have a hard time even imagining such a thing since I never encounter it! But there is a difference between accepting unavoidable risk and creating unnecessary risk. It’s the difference between safe driving with your baby secured in a car seat and drunk driving with your baby in your lap.

I happen to enjoy being in the “miracle” business. But this branch of medicine is often an ethical quagmire with few empirical answers. I never suggested that disabled or otherwise imperfect people should be aborted or killed. I’ve had the opportunity to support many parents faced with making life or death decisions for their child. And it is always their decision to make, because only they know what is acceptable to them. I may not personally agree with their decision but I still support it. It’s not always easy, especially in the extreme cases.

In this case, what’s done is done and I wish the children and their mother well. You think that no one should judge this mother. That’s your opinion. My point was that her behavior shouldn’t be celebrated either. It’s one thing to accept her actions, another to start saying “you go girl!” and handing her wads of cash. Like it or not, infamy is one of the risks she accepted. And if she has the right to pop out over a dozen babies she has no means of supporting then I and everyone else at least has the right to express our belief that she is a loony. It seems like more than a fair trade.

The IVF doctors back then had more scruples. Time travel is awesome.

Now picturing anon in a little cap like the Expedia gnome.

Okay, I will play along.

Perfect birth? How about a common sense birth? Every child is at the mercy of their parents when it comes to the decisions they make. Yes, every child has the right to be brought into this world in the safest manner possible. That varies with each individual but there has to be a standard. Just like it is irresponsible, reckless, and selfish to smoke, drink, bungee jump, and engage in a MMA fight while pregnant; it is also just as dangerous to knowingly implant six embryos in a woman.

I realize that this will not eliminate the chances of birth defects or premature birth but the hazard reduction is significant. Why would any mother take that gamble (her words)?

Yes, child-bearing and rearing is inherently risky but why would any reasonable person increase that risk exponentially? My whole point would be moot if she would have just spaced out the transfers.

Pioneer women analogy…not quite as good as the pony but Mr. Kaufman would smile.

I could care less about the risks others take until it hurts someone else. Nadya took a risk that will affect those eight kids for the rest of their lives, not the rest of hers. This is not the time to be silent and just tolerate everything. I guess there is a fine line between judgement and accountability.

*I’ve seen “miracle multiples” die miserable deaths or end up with major disabilities when they were born too soon. And many of them were every bit as wanted as these, and their moms were every bit as strong and tried as hard or harder to be the perfect incubator. Maybe having a front row seat to that side of this story gives me a different perspective.*

I think… y’all are spoiled if you think there is the right to a perfect birth.

Nope. Consider our pioneer great-grandmothers who produced “litters” because one out of five sometimes would die in infancy/childhood. They still took the risk, and it is just that for every pregnancy, and made the personal choice to try and bear offspring. Knowing that some would be taken from them too soon.

If you need a job change, take one RN. Because “judging” your patients, and their offspring, is not your place.

Sure some will die, or god forbid, be born disabled. Maybe even… a Down’s syndrome baby. (Do you think we’ll start aborting the gay fetuses, if a genetic link is identified? I do.) That is the risk ALL mothers take. It prepares them for the child raising part of life where risks naturally abound. (“A dingo ate my baby!” ;-)

If you don’t like the risks others take, don’t take them. If the sight of surviving babies sickens you, or not “perfect” offspring or deliveries, then get out of the miracle business. But for heaven’s sake, leave this woman and her 14 children alone!

If it’s the taxes you’re worried about, focus on the greedy bankers taking risks not with their own bodies and offspring, but with other people’s hard earned money. They are the ones taking away the choices not only for us today, but for tomorrow’s children and grandchildren. Nadya Suleman is just a convenient distraction…

Maybe God’s hand had a role in it? Remember, she implanted 6, they were expecting 7, and out came #8.

He works in mysterious ways. I suspect there was/is lots of prayers being delivered on behalf of this unique family.

This woman is anything but selfless. Irrational, irresponsible, inconsiderate, so focused on her own needs that she would resort to any means to fulfill them and to hell with the consequences. Not exactly supermom material.
Thank goodness those babies had a guardian angel looking out for them because their mom certainly wasn’t.

Selective reduction is still abortion.

Michelle – so the crack mom who brings her sixth child into the world and that child is taken away by the state is “meant to have children” but the couple who struggles with infertility is not. How do you know fertility doctors were not called by God to minister to these couples? God works through people.