2/4/09

Ah, The Rest of The Story!

Now that the media has had their fun tearing apart the 'irresponsibility' of the mother who gave birth to octuplets, accusing her of everything from being inspired by greed to a selfish act sure to result in child neglect, more details emerge...

LifeSiteNews:
...Some questioned the ethics of allowing Suleman to undergo treatment again after already having six children, which was billed as the climax of an alleged obsession with children. Yet her mother said Suleman had merely implanted the children already conceived as excess products from her previous treatments. "She doesn't have any more (frozen embryos), so it's over now," she said.

Another controversy erupted from ethicists who criticized Suleman's anonymous doctor for implanting eight embryos at a time. However, according to her parents, Suleman was expecting one more child to result from her remaining embryos, which they say numbered far fewer than eight. The eight would have resulted from some of the embryos splitting into twins or triplets.

Typical IVF treatments implant as many as four embryos at a time, with the expectation that some will naturally miscarry or, if they continue to grow, will be killed in a standard procedure known as "selective reduction of pregnancy."

Many criticized the mother for deviating from the norm of IVF treatment by refusing to abort some of the babies despite the risk to her health on top of her apparent money troubles. In an ABC interview, endocrinology expert Dr. Richard Paulson said that so many children at once are a problem to be avoided at all costs. "Patients who conceive octuplets would routinely be offered - even advised - selective reduction," said Paulson. "I have to assume that in this case, the patients decided to try and carry to viability, and they were lucky, plus they got some really good doctors."

Angela Suleman said that was not an option for Nadya. "What do you suggest she should have done? She refused to have them killed," the grandmother said. "That is a very painful thing."...


With the added details Fox News managed to overcome their scandalized sensibilities (apparently they had problems with how many embryos were implanted, in spite of not actually knowing)and Judge Napolitano had this to say:

"Life is superior to non-life. Human souls are eternal. Every human life is of potentially infinite value. The God who gave us life reflects His glory through each one of us."


Finally, an informed intelligent voice rises above the babble of talking heads.