Comments on: Frozen embryo octuplets

By: MLO

MLO — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:47:42 +0000

IVFMama, I am one of those patients for whom it is appropriate to transfer more than 2 embryos because pregnancy is so hard to achieve. That being said, due to a variety of life circumstances, I really don’t consider a fetus a baby. And, I have had a late miscarriage. So selective reduction – in the wildly unlikely case of HOMs – would not be a problem.

There is zero guarantee, to my way of thinking, of a baby at the end of a pregnancy. I have never comprehended women who think there is – and had trouble with DH when he thought everything was ok once we got pregnant. I wouldn’t have told anyone about the pregnancy until the baby was born if I had my way. But that is a difference in family circumstance.

I want there to be safe and sane guidelines, but I definitely do not want politicians involved. They had to have a Sesame Street style tutorial to understand a beehive. When most non-RE reproductive health professionals don’t understand IVF properly, do you really think a politician can?

By: BB

BB — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:18:41 +0000

@IVF mama, most of our Founding Fathers were wealthy or at least relatively well-off: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Hancock.

By: IVF mama

IVF mama — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:00:46 +0000

1) I believe in some Scandinavian countries, regulations limit REs to transferring 2 embryos, which seems prudent. The main ethical problem in this case is not how many children she has, but the risk to both mother and babies in transferring at least 8 embryos. Most of the octuplets are very likely to suffer negative health consequences due to their pre-natal environment, premature birth, and low birth weight. This strikes me as malpractice on the part of the RE.

2) Of course, she could have some sets of identical twins in there. I know a woman who had 2 embryos transferred, and she gave birth to triplets.

3) Since one reference was made to her getting paid, I guess that she was an egg donor. She has been pg 5 previous times via IVF. She seems to have a track record of terrific fertility. She could have used money she received from egg donation to pay for a separate cycle or two to create a bunch of embryos for herself. Possibly, she negotiated being paid and allowed to also keep a few eggs from each cycle for herself.

I don’t think it is relevant that she is a single mother. What is relevant is how she planned to be able to support and raise these children.

But there are many, many excellent poor mothers in the world, and many of them have large families (though not too many have 14! But this woman was aiming for 7, which is a more common number… there are many poor mothers of 7 children in the third world…). Of course, before birth control, I think most women who survived childbirths and illnesses had many children. Probably many of the “founding fathers” of our country, and other heroes and great men, were raised along with many siblings by poor mothers.

By: IVF-MD

IVF-MD — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:28:10 +0000

Come on now. What OJ did was even worse (the first example I could think of, sorry), but wouldn’t it be a little too much to send news crews to his kids’ schools? I’m certainly not defending the actions of this woman. I am all for her being held accountable, but I don’t think doing things to disrupt her kids at their school is the best way. That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.

By: BB

BB — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:08:05 +0000

“Is that a little too much?”

What’s a little too much is a mother of 6 approaching an RE and clinic for infertility treatments.

By: MLO

MLO — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 05:52:22 +0000

I do not believe an ethical RE would do this. Something is very, very wrong here. I don’t have any proof, but I smell fraud. Some of the facts just don’t fit.

Is there certainty that this was even done in an American clinic? Seriously, we do not know anything for sure right now.

By: Syn

Syn — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:33:35 +0000

“They were the heroes who were forced to save these babies.”

Yes, they are and it is a shame that they are being dragged over the coals.