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Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
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Octuplet mom sparks a heated ethics debate
Source: Agencies |
February 1, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
HOW in the world does a woman with six children get a fertility doctor to help her have more - eight more?
An ethical debate has erupted after it was learned that the southern California woman who gave birth to octuplets in the United States last week had six children already.
Large multiple births "are presented on TV shows as a 'Brady Bunch' moment. They're not," fumed Arthur Caplan, bioethics chairman at the University of Pennsylvania. He noted the serious and sometimes lethal complications and crushing medical costs that often come with high-multiple births.
But Dr Jeffrey Steinberg, who has fertility clinics in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, countered: "Who am I to say that six is the limit? There are people who like to have big families."
Multiple births this big are considered impossible without fertility treatment, but doctors would not say whether 33-year-old Nadya Suleman had used fertility drugs or had embryos implanted.
However, the children's grandmother told The Associated Press her daughter resorted to in-vitro fertilization because she had trouble conceiving. She said her daughter, who is unmarried, has been obsessed with having children since she was a teenager.
An ethical debate has erupted after it was learned that the southern California woman who gave birth to octuplets in the United States last week had six children already.
Large multiple births "are presented on TV shows as a 'Brady Bunch' moment. They're not," fumed Arthur Caplan, bioethics chairman at the University of Pennsylvania. He noted the serious and sometimes lethal complications and crushing medical costs that often come with high-multiple births.
But Dr Jeffrey Steinberg, who has fertility clinics in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, countered: "Who am I to say that six is the limit? There are people who like to have big families."
Multiple births this big are considered impossible without fertility treatment, but doctors would not say whether 33-year-old Nadya Suleman had used fertility drugs or had embryos implanted.
However, the children's grandmother told The Associated Press her daughter resorted to in-vitro fertilization because she had trouble conceiving. She said her daughter, who is unmarried, has been obsessed with having children since she was a teenager.
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