More "It's a uterus, not a clown car!"

[Grampa]

saw on the news the other day....... the cost to take care of the 8 preemies will exceed 3 mil.

and thats just till they are healthy enough to go home.

 

and..... this is just one person.

imagine all the others. one baby here, two over there.

sad sad sad

[Grampa]

http://www.parentdish.com/2009/02/02/octuplet-mom-looks-for-tv-career-as-child-expert/

[Oldfisti]

http://www.parentdish.com/2009/02/02/octuplet-mom-looks-for-tv-career-as-child-expert/

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?

[the_Journeyman]

Well, she's certainly an expert on having them...

JM

[Grampa]

you knew that was gonna happen

[Popeye the Sailor]

it's wrong, but how do we stop it?

I imagine we could let her hang out with BP for a while, then warn her that some of the kids could turn into that sort of person.

[Grampa]

I imagine we could let her hang out with BP for a while, then warn her that some of the kids could turn into that sort of person.

they're dooooooooomed 

[swampduc]

you could no more have such limits than having a law that says certain people may not have children.  the people can endorse supporting children but there can't be a law preventing someone from having more. (however, a court can put limits if there is criminal acts involved, but that is not the case here)

Exactly.

Now, I'll admit that as a physician myself, my knee-jerk reaction is to get kind of pissed when I hear lay people criticizing the way I practice medicine. But we're also limited in terms of whom we can refuse care to. For example, is it ok for me to refuse retinal surgery to a diabetic because they weigh 300 #'s and are chowing down on McDonald's everytime they're in my waiting room? (And yes, I've seen that many times) Should internists refuse to care for someone's emphysema because they brought it on themselves by smoking? What about refusing to do neurosurgery on motorcyclists who have accidents? Slippery slope, there.

I don't think that these 8 kids were the desired outcome on anyone's part. The reason you place multiple embryos in IVF is because they rarely implant. On average, it takes 3 or 4 rounds of IVF to get 1 healthy fetus. I agree 100% that this outcome sucks bigtime. My own reaction was that I wanted to strangle that mom. I just think there's plenty of blame to go around, and I don't think it should all go the docs.

[rgramjet]

eBay!

[Gimpy]

eBay!

Pure Genius   

[DaniD]

Exactly.

Now, I'll admit that as a physician myself, my knee-jerk reaction is to get kind of pissed when I hear lay people criticizing the way I practice medicine. But we're also limited in terms of whom we can refuse care to. For example, is it ok for me to refuse retinal surgery to a diabetic because they weigh 300 #'s and are chowing down on McDonald's everytime they're in my waiting room? (And yes, I've seen that many times) Should internists refuse to care for someone's emphysema because they brought it on themselves by smoking? What about refusing to do neurosurgery on motorcyclists who have accidents? Slippery slope, there.

I don't think that these 8 kids were the desired outcome on anyone's part. The reason you place multiple embryos in IVF is because they rarely implant. On average, it takes 3 or 4 rounds of IVF to get 1 healthy fetus. I agree 100% that this outcome sucks bigtime. My own reaction was that I wanted to strangle that mom. I just think there's plenty of blame to go around, and I don't think it should all go the docs.

I hear what you're saying and realize that as an MD you have a different perspective, however it's hard for me to see the correlation between treating someone who is sick even if they brought the illness on themselves, and IVF.  This woman wasn't suffering from "needs more kids disease" and needed IVF to save her life.  It was a conscious decision that she made with her doctors.  Its the difference between a "want" and a "need".  She "wanted" more kids but she didn't "need" them and just like a plastic surgeon may refuse to operate on someone they feel cannot handle the procedure either emotionally or physically, these doctors could have refused to go along with IVF on a single mother of 6 children.  Obviously since she used IVF to have her other SIX children, she tends to take well to the procedure and they could have assumed that this time would be no different.  What if she had died from complications related to the number of children she was having at one time?  Would the doctors have been deemed to be somewhat responsible for the condition that caused her death?  Maybe not legally but I'm sure there would be a lot more people standing up and saying that it was a wrong or poor decision. 

[swampduc]

<snip> What if she had died from complications related to the number of children she was having at one time?  Would the doctors have been deemed to be somewhat responsible for the condition that caused her death?  Maybe not legally but I'm sure there would be a lot more people standing up and saying that it was a wrong or poor decision. 

Probably, but I'm sure she signed a consent listing multiple births as one of the potential complications, plus she was offered the choice of abortions on some of the fetuses.
But it still was a lousy make the beast with two backsing decision 

[ducpainter]

<snip>
But it still was a lousy make the beast with two backsing decision 

On every ones part.

[DaniD]

HA!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29002731/

and

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29009410/

"now fertility experts are suggesting the case of Nadya Suleman and her octuplets constitutes a breach of medical guidelines."

[swampduc]

HA!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29002731/

and

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29009410/

"now fertility experts are suggesting the case of Nadya Suleman and her octuplets constitutes a breach of medical guidelines."

Jebus. That's horrible. Mea culpa, shoot the doc (and the mom). Better yet, make the doc take home 4 of the babies and raise 'em.