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Monday, February 02, 2009

Octuplets--should there be a law?

This woman is crazy, not to put too fine a point on it. She has certainly taken advantage of "the right to choose," although Gloria Steinem probably would not agree with her choice.

This is one of those instances when hard cases make bad law. The situation is deplorable. Her children's future looks bleak. The government's options are all bad. But meddling with the rights of women to conceive and bear children by legislating or regulating or harassing doctors would make matters worse.

Fortunately, very few women will be inspired by this woman's example. I don't think there are going to be too many imitators of a woman who can certainly be classified as a breeder, if anyone is.

7 comments:

Paul Mitchell said...

I would agree that there is something DREADFULLY wrong with someone that has never married and has fourteen kids, but my philosophy of individualism keeps me from asking for a government solution to her repeated spawning.

My philosophy also keeps me from wanting the government to take my money and give it to this fruitcake.

To each, his own, and that means me, too.

miriam sawyer said...

I don't want the government giving her money, but it probably will. I doubt that her 14 children will be left to starve.

She is an isolated case, an outlier. I would find it personally distasteful to see her cash in on her story, becoming a minor celebrity. Most likely that will happen, as it did with the man who had two kids. This kind of geeky stuff is a regular feature of our celebrity culture.

What I don't want is the government messing with her or anyone else's rights to get fertility treatments or anything else.

airforcewife said...

I wonder if any of her children will end up in foster care...

miriam sawyer said...

afw: She is beyond bizarre. Last I heard she planned to breast-feed all eight of the newborns.

Paul Mitchell said...

Miriam, I do hope you are aware that your last comment was totally out of line. Now I need to go buy a brain-brush to get rid of that image.

miriam sawyer said...

Don't blame me; she said it.

Paul Mitchell said...

If all of your friends jumped off a cliff, would you, too?

Now I am just parenting.