Unprofessional Parenting

I was surprised to see the headline this morning that mother who recently gave birth to octuplets already has six kids living at home. On a basic level I can’t even imagine the logistics of having octuplets - let alone six additional children. The MSNBC report (see video below) points to a much more complicated ethical dilemma about the propriety of giving fertility assistance to parents who already have multiple children.

Once the mother realized she was pregnant with eight more kids her only options were to selectively abort or to maintain the pregnancy. I understand the inability to selectively abort but I think the real question is regarding what happened before she became pregnant.

We don’t know much about the mom (and nothing about the father although it seems that he is not involved) but there is reason to question the rationality of undergoing In Vitro fertilization when you already have six children living at home.  At the very least it may be irresponsible and at worst potentially insane.

Here is the video. I’ll be interested to see reactions to this one.

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