I respect that not everyone is going to agree with me on this one, but I wanted to write on my feelings in regards to the recent birth of the Octuplets in the US.
As someone who has struggled with fertility issues and multiple miscarriages, I know that my feelings are in part related to the jealousy I feel about not likely having the large family that I dreamed of, but I do believe that some of my feelings are at least warranted in this case.
As many of you know, the set of octuplets were born through IVF to a single mom who was already raising 6 children, 3 of whom according to the press have disabilities. I understand that the purpose behind having multiple embryos implanted is so to give the carrier the best odds at conceiving even a single pregnancy. Even with IVF treatments, there is still great odds at not having any of the pregnancies take. IVF is also to be known to be responsible in a lot of cases for the birth of multiples. Any birth of multiples places the mom at greater risks of pregnancy complications and the children at a greater risk of being born with disabilities. This was clearly explained to me by my RE at my last visit.
IVF is a huge moneymaker for doctors, especially those practising in the US. On average, the doctor will implant 3-4 embryos in hopes that one will take. In this case, the doctor implanted 8. At least. If we consider that the chances of all 4 implanted embryos actually taking are very very low, then the chances of all 8 taking hold are even slimmer. Why would a doctor implant 8, knowing that the risk of having at least 2 would likely be higher? Especially in the face of the potential risks involved?
I just get this feeling in the pit of my stomach that this was a publicity stunt. If the outcome of the implantation was successful, it would highlight the "success" of the fertility doctor involved, likely increasing his caseload (and thus his revenue). If the outcome was successful for the mother, then it would increase her to celebrity status and likely lead to book deals, reality show offers, and a whole heck of a lot of publicity in general. This family has already created a website to gather monetary and gift donations from others who would like to send them in. This is a free world and you can ask for whatever you want, but it all just seems a little unethical to me. Nevermind the fact that this family lives in a state of poverty. How is it financially ethical to have this number of children when you have difficulty feeding the family members you already have? How is this acting responsibly when you already have 6 children and likely not a large support system in place (her mother has stated to media sources that she objected to the whole implantation in the first place)?
Again, these are just my thoughts on the subject and I know that a lot will disagree with what I have had to say.
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6 comments:
nope, in fact i totally agree with what you said...lol
How did she afford to HAVE the procedures done?!?!?!?! This whole case makes me sick to my stomach. They were "hers" to implant (so she stated)-as someone who supposedly had a hard time conceiving to begin with, she should know other women's heartache. Couldn't she have donated those embryo's to someone else? She just comes across as very selfish to me. Her poor children. Esp the older ones, who will now become caretakers for the smaller ones. It's all just a shame and really fires me up!!!
And, shame on that Dr. I hope he gets his medical license taken away for not following industry guidelines. Why on this earth would 1 woman need 6 embryos (that's how many she is claiming) implanted. For her age, the max should have been 2-3!!!!
Melissa,
This story makes me very sad. The more I learn about it, the sadder I get.
I almost blogged about this story the other day but elected not to because the Dateline show made me feel more comfortable just avoiding this topic.
I even debated whether commenting on this post about this story would be a good idea or not. I very much *do not* want to do anything to "promote" the story in a way that could benefit the mother financially.
After debating back & forth, I decided to go ahead and post this comment. I don't think my posting a comment to this blog will contribute to any financial gain for the mother in this case. If I did, I wouldn't be writing this.
I had first seen a feature on the Today Show about this story... but where I really heard the backstory was on Dateline.
It's my understanding that 6 embryos were transferred (2 of which must have split). Clearly 6 embryos should not have been transferred by the doctor.
I'm not well-versed about the intricacies of IVF but from what I read on Kelly Damron's twitter message the other day, the media is incorrectly using the word "implant" instead of "transfer". (Kelly writes the Tiny Toes blog and she had IVF herself).
Here is her tweet on this topic (her screen name on twitter is “tinytoes”):
"Dear Media - With IVF the embryos are transferred, not implanted. Implantation occurs when the embryo attaches to the uterus. Pls update".
It's hard to understand why a doctor would completely disregard the protocol which exists for good reasons (i.e. safety for one)! One can only hope that this doctor won't figure out a way to profit from this sad case.
As far as the mother in this case is concerned, our reality TV-addicted society may well financially reward this woman somehow. Let's hope not.
While Ann Curry noted on the Dateline show on this subject that her show has gotten hate mail about this story, and while she grilled this mother quite a bit (rightly so!), I was unpleasantly surprised when the Dateline show concluded with the announcement of how to donate to this mother!
Regardless of the fact that tough questions were asked of this mother, isn't advertising her donation fund on national TV show contributing to the problem?
Don't get me wrong. I know someone is going to need to pay for the things these babies need. I realize some people may want to donate out of concern for the children. (I'm concerned for those children but I most certainly won't be donating anything). I understand that if this woman can’t feed her children then some sort of government assistance will come into play in light of the fact that this mother has already gotten food stamps BEFORE these 8 children were born.
However, the idea of this woman having access to potentially large sums of money from a donation fund really bothers me. Her financial story just doesn’t add up for me. I don’t care how many double shifts she worked at her old job, I do not see how she could have paid for her IVFs with that (as she insisted to Ann Curry that she did).
I’m not her CPA and her finances are not my business. However, if she’s going to put herself on national TV and emphatically insist that her income from that job is how she paid for the IVFs, she’s really opening herself up to people’s questions.
The thing is... no matter how tough Ann Curry's questions for this mother were (as they should have been), isn't promoting the donation fund on the air just "rewarding" this mother's behavior?
After all, the babies aren't going to be allocating that money. Any money donated to that fund will be accessible by the octuplets' mother. No thanks.
I like Ann Curry but was just mystified as to how she could all but scold this mother for being irresponsible... only to turn around and promote the same woman's donation fund at the end of the same show.
It's all very sad.
So while I decided I didn't have the energy to post about this story on my blog, I decided (in the end) that I would comment on it here.
I personally think this woman has some serious issues. I think she may “believe her own hype”. I don’t pretend to know what’s going on in her head.
It saddens me that the public is seeing this woman say at the top of the show that endometriosis is what caused her to be infertile and have IVF in the first place.
Much of the public still doesn't know what endo is. Is this case what we want people to think of when they hear the word "endometriosis"???
It seems that anytime I ever hear endometriosis mentioned in the media, it's never associated with a patient I see as representative of typical endometriosis patients.
Clearly this woman is not representative of endometriosis patients.
I saw this other twitter message in regard to the fact that this woman has hired a PR rep:
The woman who posted this message has the screen name "autismfamily":
"I thought #OctupletMom hired an agency to field the offers, seems like a bad PR move to put her in front of cameras"
1 day ago
Frankly, endometriosis patients suffer enough. We certainly don't need this woman with 14 IVF babies representing the endo patient community.
I'm sad for the endo patients who are hurt by this story. I'm sad for the 14 children. The 6 year old daughter who will have the octuplets as younger siblings looked & sounded less-than-thrilled about their arrival. I can't blame her. If I were in her shoes, I'd be feeling that way too.
To me, it's all just very sad.
Jeanne
Jeanne, I didn't realize she said she had endo...oh brother.
I completely agree! This whole thing makes me so annoyed I can't even think about it. I think it's so selfish on her part even if she was only trying to conceive one or two more.. how's a single mother supposed to support even 6-8 kids let alone 14?! I feel so sad for the kids.
Ali,
Oh brother is right! We need quality coverage of endo in the media. I have no desire to have 'octomom' as the "face of endo patients". :(
I'm working at trying to get the media to [gasp!] cover endo responsibly...
Jeanne
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