Parents are outraged concerning the single unemployed mom who gave birth to octuplets.
You can see what parents wrote on this at:
There is one more issue that bothers me about the octuplet story.
At the moment, the treating physician is under investigation. The charge is that a “woman Suleman’s age should have no more than two embryos implanted.”
But this charge seems to be missing the whole point!
The question isn’t that it should have been two not eight. The question is that given the woman is unmarried, unemployed, and already has 6 children who already require public assistance, was it proper for this doctor to help her have any more children.
This reminds me of the case of Al Capone, the head of organized crime in Chicago during the 1920′s. He ran gambling and prostitution rings and was responsible for about 200 murders, but the only charges they could get him on was tax evasion.
Parents are outraged. Everyone feels that this doctor did something grossly wrong. Obviously his motivation was the $100,000 fee he took.
However, the current charge of too many embryos seems like an excuse to punish him. Everyone feels he did something wrong, but no one can express exactly what it is.
In your opinion:
- Did this doctor do anything wrong? If so, what?
- Beyond judging the medical risks of a case, should a
doctor have the power to decide who should give birth?
Perhaps, this type of ethical decision should not be placed
in the hands of doctors. - What should happen to him? A fine? Lose his license?
- What types of guidelines should be put in place so that this
type of thing doesn’t happen again?
Please share you comments below.
Warmly,
Anthony Kane, MD
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The doctor is an accomplice to child abuse. In my opinion what the doctor did wrong was to implant more embryos than any FAMILY let alone single parent could provide proper love and care for. Of course they (the doctors) believe in what they call selective reduction. I call it murder. The only motive I can see for the doctor or the mother for that matter is money. Unfortunately for the children, it backfired in this case. People are so outraged that they don’t want to see any financial help going to this women. I really believe that the children should be removed from her custody and placed in homes where they can be loved and cared for as is the right of any child. They didn’t ask to be born, but will unfortunately have to bear the consequences of an unscrupulous mother and doctor if left where they are.
If the law says only 2 embro\’s can be inplanted at a time, why did he/she implant so many? That would have been wrong to do in the first place, and I would bet even money that the doctor that did her set of sextuplets was the same doctor. And please realize this woman is not married, and she payed for this with money she got from a lawsuit.
Hi Theresa-
The law doesn’t specify any number of eggs. Current recommended medical practice is 2 eggs for a woman of her age. The question is whether he used inappropriate medical practices.
However, the issue is more complicated. What usually happens, is that they implant a number of eggs, such as 8, and hope that some of them will be successful. If more than one or two seem to be growing, they then go in an abort some of them so that the remaining embryos will have a better chance of survival.
This seems to be what this doctor did, which really is a reasonable approach, from a medical standpoint. What happened in this particular case is the the woman refused to have any of the embryos aborted.
It wasn’t the doctor’s decision to allow 8 embryos to grow. It was the mother’s decision. In other words, she refused normal medical procedure. If the doctor had forced the abortions against her will, complying to ‘normal medical practice’ he could have been sued by the mother and put in jail for battery.
Therefore, the decision of whether or not to let more than one or two grow was entirely out of his hands. That is why this charge seems trumped up.
Everyone feels he did something wrong ethically. But there just doesn’t seem to be anything to get him on.
I do feel the doctor was wrong. He should of did a better evaluation of her mental
status. It is a no brainer that this has multiple mental issues. I also think he wanted the notoriety but it backfired. I think he should pay the hospital bill. I am getting tired of paying for other peoples children. I do believe if you cant afford them dont have them. I do believe in accidents but I \’m talking about people who
have 3 plus children and they cant afford it. I do believe our country has a mental health issue.
I believe the Dr in this case to be ethically wrong, but not a criminal. I have struggled with infertility- ultimately I was able to give birth to a biological child thanks to a wonderful (and ethical) fertility specialist. Our Reproductive Endocrinologist spent a long time speaking with us, going over the risks of multiple births and we had to sign papers stating that we were aware of the risks and would consider selective reduction, in the event of multiple eggs being fertilized. We adopted our second child through foster care. Her birth mother is an addict, my daughter was her 7th child. Due to her birth mom\’s drug use, my daughter was born prematurely and has severe reflux, failure to thrive, and cerebral palsy. In speaking with other Moms of children with similar medical conditions, I\’ve found that many of those kids were multiples. This made me even more aware of the complications and risks of multiple births. It truly is a miracle that Nadya\’s Octuplets are doing as well as they are- who knows what will happen further down the road? Due to my experiences, I have given a LOT of thought about what it means to be a \"mother,\" what defines a \"good mother\" (or good parent for that matter). Should the goverment stop people like Nadya Suleman from having more children? Should the goverment stop people like my daughter\’s mother from having more children? Although it might seem like that taking away someone\’s choice is the answer, ultimately, I do not believe that it is. I only wish there were some way to truly help people make better choices, and thus spare their children, who often end up suffering as a result of the poor choices made by the adults around them.
I am an RN. I think the doctor should loose his license. People in the medical field are supposed to behave with the utmost ethical and moral behavior. He has violated the hippocratic oath throughout. Examples are:
Implanting (at least) eight embryos: “I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism (Hippocratic Oath). ”
“I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.” I will argue that according to this statement of the Oath, the physician (or anyone with common sense) would see it detrimental to impregnate a mentally ill woman whose goal is to have more children to “fix” her by making her feel loved and connected. Children are not born unto us to serve our selfish needs. Growing up with that purpose is just one reason these kids are going to be screwed up.
“I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.” This physician is a man? Way to go Doc to assist feminist extremists in stating men are not necessary or important in children’s lives! So many studies show children suffer immensly and the outcome leads to dramatically increasing the odds of teen pregnancy, incarcaration, high school dropouts, drug use,etc.! Also, the doctor is completely disregarding the fact that he has just placed millions of dollars needed to raise these children throughout their lifetime in the lap of taxpayers.
Will her previous six children, three being special needs–there is no way she is able to give her 14 children the attention they need. Then to state daycare is going to raise her children while she continues to fulfil her own selfish wants of getting her masters, to then work! Who is raising her kids now while she out getting her 15 minutes of fame?
I do believe on the grounds of violating the HIppocratic Oath, this Doctor should be stripped of his lisence.
Every child is a blessing, but single, unemployed, 14 kids… I can’t imagine.
Firstly, Doctors don\’t \"implant\" eggs.. they transfer Embryos to the uterus. This particular doctor uses an ultrasound guided technique to place the embryo deeper into the uterine lining.
As the mother of three children concieved via IVF (one at a time) the sensasionalism of this story only feeds into the frenzy of the uninformed.
Was the doctor criminal – no. Irresposible, absolutely, along with the mom. How the woman\’s case was handled makes me ill and the media frenzy surrounding it sickens me.
The fact that all 8 of these babies survived and that she carried this pregnancy to 31 weeks show her dedication to the children however. Many HOM pregnancies end in shattering despair. I wish her the very best and hope that what comes out of this story is not more regulation on doctors, but more responsibility on both the doctor and patients part.
First, the Dr did not implant 8 embros, he implanted 6 and 2 split to twins. I feel that the Dr has a moral responssbility to ensure that any child they help create will be well cared for. In this case, taking that amount of money from a women that has no job, 6 children already, 3 of which are special needs and recieve disability payments, was moraly wrong. I don’t believe that he should lose his license, but should have a “mark” on his record due to the morality clause all Dr’s swear to when they take the oath.
The mother on the other hand, is a piece of work! These babies will need hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical treatments. She expects us, the plublic to pay since she has no means to. Another question to be asked is where the heck did she get the money for IV? She is getting assistance, and food stamps and yet she can pay for something that many hard working people cannot?
There hs been a web site set up for the public to donate money and services to her. I don’t see this as being sucessful given the outcry.
I am the mother of many. In that I mean I have 4 children that I gave birth to,1 child that my husband and I have adopted,which by the way by blood was my granddaughter,and have custody of her sister my other granddaughter. Yes,now I receive help,ie food stamps,2 of my grown children receive disability,one of which I have to help care for,she is unable to care for herself,which also means I help care for her son. No she was not always like this. Hers started with a broken foot. RSD is what started hers. She is in constant pain. We could get no help for her. First of all I blame the government for all the mental issues we have to deal with. I say this because ALL of my children have mental issues to some degree. Think about it,food additives,what is it they put in the water we drink? Our meat,no matter what it is is shot full of hormones and GOD only knows what else. This woman clearly has mental issues. But,and I am sorry to say, it sounds to me like this doctor has some as well. My heart goes out to those children. My daughter was lucky to have 1 child. Bless his heart he suffers with multiple health issues. His momma wasn\’t sick when he was born either. This woman already had children that have special needs,she knew what she was doing. If I received a settlement don\’t think for one second I would use it to try to bring a whole litter of children into this world knowing that they could be born with health issues.
I am a mom and an ObGyn physician. While the doctor will never be criminally prosecuted, the American Society of Reproductive Endocrinology has designed the guidelines than govern the conduct of their subspecialists for extremely good reasons. Even twins are at very significantly increased risk over singletons, and the last thing any ObGyn doctor wants to be faced with is having to counsel a patient to selectively terminate embryos. Limiting the embryos transferred minimizes the chance that will ever be necessary. If Ms. Suleman was 40, then one could justify what he did. Even with her admitted history of miscarriages, that is no reason to change the number of embryos transferred at 33 years old, especially considering her previous history of reproductive success. In our country, it is not the role of a physician to judge a person’s suitability for parenthood, but any infertility clinic worth their salt should always thoroughly evaluate a patient medically, financially and psychologically before an extensive informed consent procedure for any proposed treatment option. At the very least, I think this physician needs to have his subspecialty board certification revoked or suspended indefinitely…