Birth of eight babies inspires more questions than joy

Birth of eight babies inspires more questions than joy

Let us be the first to say that we hope some publisher or movie producer is dumb enough to give a multi-million dollar contract to Nadya Suleman, the California woman who gave birth to eight babies two weeks ago. Not that we think Miss Suleman should get rich for her thoroughly irresponsible act. She shouldn’t get a penny until the hospital bill for her and her six sons and two daughters is paid in full.

And, let’s be frank, a single 33-year-old mother of 14 children who describes herself as a “professional student” and lives with her parents isn’t about to pay a bill estimated at $2 million without help. Nor is she likely to be able to afford raising these eight children and the six she already had.

Historically, Americans have embraced dramatic stories about multiple births, at least back to the 1934 birth of the Dionne quintuplets in rural Ontario, Canada. Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie, and Yvonne Dionne were the first quintuplets known to survive infancy.

Seventy-five years later, fertility drugs and treatments have made multiple births far more common place, but what happened in California is still extraordinary in a number of ways.

The country’s first set of octuplets was born to Nkem Chukwu of Texas on Dec. 20, 1998. A week later, the tiniest of the infants died of heart and lung failure. The surviving seven siblings are now 10 and appear to be doing well under the care of their mother and father.

Obvious risks

But any multiple birth comes with complications and the case of the Suleman octuplets raise serious medical, ethical and moral questions.

Practice committee guidelines published by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine note that a multiple pregnancy (three or more implanted embryos) is an undesirable outcome because of the increased risk of complications to the fetuses and the mother.

For a woman under 35 who has had previous success with in vitro fertilization — which would describe Suleman — “consideration should be given to transferring only a single embryo,” but no more than two in the absence of extraordinary circumstances.

And yet, Suleman managed to find a practitioner who implanted eight embryos at once.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the doctor or clinic that performed the procedure is identified. He, she or it should be subject to the condemnation of the medical profession. But more than that, if the state of California ends up having to absorb medical costs not paid by Suleman, the state might want to file suit based on what is very arguably malpractice.

The appearance of a 33-year-old unmarried woman who already has six children at a fertility clinic ought to ring some alarm bells. Even the woman’s mother has described her daughter as “obsessed” with having children. The results of Miss Suleman’s latest fertility treatment have proven to be an unhealthy obsession by any definition.

Mistakes were made

When the Dionne quintuplets were born, Canada stepped in and took custody of the children to keep them from being exploited. That was the wrong thing to do for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that Canada itself exploited the girls, turning them into a tourist attraction that made millions for the government.

But certainly the state of California has an interest in monitoring the care and nurturing of these children. Suleman endangered her own health to the obvious detriment of the six children she already had. She pursued fertility treatment that resulted in the birth of eight premature babies who will require months of hospital treatment and face the risk of various lifelong medical and developmental complications.

Medicine has made miraculous strides in helping women to have children against medical odds. The result has been hundreds of thousands of happy, healthy families.

But the Suleman births are an example of good technology wrongfully used. These births are not miracles, they are medicine run amuck, aided and abetted by an obsessive woman and an irresponsible fertility specialist.