Babies by the bushel.
I'm sure everyone's seen the news about the new litter of octuplets born this week. CNN reports that this woman already had six--six!--kids, but just wanted "one more." Instead of adopting or just dealing with the fact that one woman does not need seven children, she went ahead with fertility treatments and wound up with an enormous infestation of babies. A staffer at the hospital is quoted as saying, "...she's a perfect mother." I beg to differ.
To me, this type of behavior shows either complete self-absorption and thoughtlessness or perhaps just total contempt for everyone else in the world. Here's why:
1. It's environmentally irresponsible. The planet really, really, REALLY does not need eight new consumers, especially American consumers. How much waste will this woman's fourteen children generate in their lifetimes? How many resources--food, water, houses, paper, disposable diapers-- will they consume? Human population is already approaching unsustainability, even in the US--particularly in California, where the water supply is getting smaller and smaller, space is getting tighter and tighter, and the population is only growing. People like this only hasten the process, and while it's possible that maybe one of these octuplets will come up with a brilliant solution that will solve overpopulation, end world hunger, and give everyone who wants one a puppy, I sincerely doubt it. Especially the puppy part.
2. It's socially irresponsible. I work in a very poor school with a lot of kids from broken homes. A disproportionate number of my students are in foster care. Some of them have even been taken in by other teachers at the school. Who are this woman and her doctors to say that kids like my students are so unworthy of having a "forever" home that expensive and unreliable medical procedures should be performed, instead? If she'd really wanted "just one more" child, I'm sure there's a ready supply of comparatively convenient and inexpensive* children available at any nearby adoption agency. What's more, they'll already have low expectations for their parents! Perhaps if this woman had been thinking with her brain instead of with her unchecked biological drive for her DNA's continuation, she might have dropped by her local Heart Gallery instead.
*Yes, adoption is also inconvenient and expensive, but it's not AS inconvenient and expensive as IVF and other fertility treatment once you consider the testing, injections, treatment itself including medication, medical costs associated with pregnancy and labor, then the neonatal costs of caring for your more-likely-to-be-premature child(ren).
I understand that it's heartbreaking to discover you can't have kids (assuming you want them), but I also understand that it's heartbreaking to be a child that nobody wants. Why not try to heal both heartbreaks by adopting that child instead? Oh, yeah--you want "your own" baby. Get over yourself. Do you think your genes are that special? Because I'm pretty sure they're not.
I don't mean to be a jerk, but all the "isn't she brave/special/amazing" fluff pieces that have been aired and will likely continue as the brood grows really irritate me. This woman shouldn't be praised. She hasn't done anything noble or brave, she's just been tremendously selfish. Then again, this is America. We really seem to like that sort of thing.
To me, this type of behavior shows either complete self-absorption and thoughtlessness or perhaps just total contempt for everyone else in the world. Here's why:
1. It's environmentally irresponsible. The planet really, really, REALLY does not need eight new consumers, especially American consumers. How much waste will this woman's fourteen children generate in their lifetimes? How many resources--food, water, houses, paper, disposable diapers-- will they consume? Human population is already approaching unsustainability, even in the US--particularly in California, where the water supply is getting smaller and smaller, space is getting tighter and tighter, and the population is only growing. People like this only hasten the process, and while it's possible that maybe one of these octuplets will come up with a brilliant solution that will solve overpopulation, end world hunger, and give everyone who wants one a puppy, I sincerely doubt it. Especially the puppy part.
2. It's socially irresponsible. I work in a very poor school with a lot of kids from broken homes. A disproportionate number of my students are in foster care. Some of them have even been taken in by other teachers at the school. Who are this woman and her doctors to say that kids like my students are so unworthy of having a "forever" home that expensive and unreliable medical procedures should be performed, instead? If she'd really wanted "just one more" child, I'm sure there's a ready supply of comparatively convenient and inexpensive* children available at any nearby adoption agency. What's more, they'll already have low expectations for their parents! Perhaps if this woman had been thinking with her brain instead of with her unchecked biological drive for her DNA's continuation, she might have dropped by her local Heart Gallery instead.
*Yes, adoption is also inconvenient and expensive, but it's not AS inconvenient and expensive as IVF and other fertility treatment once you consider the testing, injections, treatment itself including medication, medical costs associated with pregnancy and labor, then the neonatal costs of caring for your more-likely-to-be-premature child(ren).
I understand that it's heartbreaking to discover you can't have kids (assuming you want them), but I also understand that it's heartbreaking to be a child that nobody wants. Why not try to heal both heartbreaks by adopting that child instead? Oh, yeah--you want "your own" baby. Get over yourself. Do you think your genes are that special? Because I'm pretty sure they're not.
I don't mean to be a jerk, but all the "isn't she brave/special/amazing" fluff pieces that have been aired and will likely continue as the brood grows really irritate me. This woman shouldn't be praised. She hasn't done anything noble or brave, she's just been tremendously selfish. Then again, this is America. We really seem to like that sort of thing.