The California woman who recently gave birth to octuplets -- bringing her total number of children up to 14 -- has been attracting a lot of attention, and casting some light on the in-vitro fertilization industry. Is it safe to implant that many embryos in a woman? What are California's obligations to support the children? Are the mother's personal preferences being adequately respected by the media?
And then, there is the FRC, with its simple, tried and true, one size fits all message: it's the gays' (or in this case, lesbians') fault (the specific argument is such a breath-taking non-sequitur that I can't stand to repeat it).
Elsewhere, they expand their focus, attacking the woman for having the temerity to want children as a single mom, and attacking fertility clinics for killing babies (natch). But it's nice to know that, through it all, the FRC can find time to stick to the basics.
Is it safe to implant that many embryos in a woman? No.
ReplyDeleteWhat are California's obligations to support the children? Same as to any others.
Are the mother's personal preferences being adequately respected by the media? Yes, if by "adequately" you mean "proportional to her interest in privacy, which is to say, not at all."
I'm beginning to wonder if Tony Perkins actually suffers from a cognitive disorder that makes him unable to perceive what other people do. He says,
'Often the procedure results in the production of "excess" embryonic human beings, kept in cold storage, which are eventually either discarded or dismembered for their stem cells. When multiple embryos are implanted in the womb, the ones that appear less hardy may be killed during pregnancy, aborted in what is called "selective reduction."'
It's because Suleman DIDN'T want to have any embryos discarded or "selectively reduced" that she ended up with a litter of 8. If she had a callous attitude toward something the size of a thumbnail, she wouldn't be the mother of 14 right now.
I'm more annoyed with Perkins's intellectual dishonesty in being unhappy with embryonic storage, selective reduction AND multiple-child births, but also refusing to admit that what he really wants is to ban reproductive clinics. (Because even FRC has supporters, or at least the friends and family thereof, who had children only through the use of reproductive tech.) Grow some balls, man: if you don't approve of children being conceived "unnaturally," just say it. (And if you do approve, those balls will be useful for sperm selling.)