Wow! It’s Wednesday! The 8 Octupulets In the Room
So you’ve probably heard about this woman here in California who after conceiving 6 kids through IVF, went through the process again and had 8 more.
Now as someone who’s been through IVF, of course I’ve been following this story with almost fanatical interest.
First of all, I find it hard to imagine that this women is anything less than crazy. 6 kids born to a single mother with super-enabling parents are bad enough, to willingly sign on for more after that smacks of narcissism, greed, delusion and a few other mental illnesses that I could name.
Second, I am dead curious about the doctor that implanted the embryos. The details are shady here. Maybe she lied to him. Maybe he only implanted 4 embryos and they ALL split — what are the chances? Either way, it’s sparked a huge debate about IVF practices.
I’m with the camp that believes that only one egg should be implanted in women under 35 if the egg is good — 2 if the eggs are only okay.
However, I do understand why some doctors choose to implant more than two embryos at times. IVF is incredibly expensive. I’ve read about and spoken to women who have switched jobs, gone through extreme life changes, and/or taken out loans in order to afford it. Under those circumstances, does a doctor really want to say “only one egg at a time it’s safer”?
So now a few politicians are making a little noise about maybe regulating this IVF stuff. I doubt it will happen. If you were to regulate IVF, then you’d have to talk about why so many insurance companies are allowed to get away with not covering it, nd that’s a can of worms that they probably don’t want to open. Mind you the insurance packages of most lawmakers cover IVF, so they don’t have to worry about how they’re going to afford it.
Meanwhile, a few other people are trying to make this a pro-choice issue. Doesn’t a woman have the right to decide what she wants to do with her body? If this California woman wanted to go out tomorrow and implant 4 more embryos, she could totally do it. It’s her body.
I find this argument interesting, b/c technically when my doctor suggested putting in only one egg, I could have demanded that she put in two, maybe even three or four — the discussion never got that far.
However, when my fertility doctor gave me my medical records to take to my regular OB, I noticed that she had written up a short mental evaluation along with her physical evaluation in her patient notes. So she probably would have turned me down as a patient if I had seemed crazy.
I guess the question becomes should every IVF patient who wants more than the recommended amount of eggs implanted have to undergo a mental evaluation? Would that be fair, considering that non-IVF people like The Duggars don’t have to undergo mental evaluation in order to have 19 kids.
It’s interesting because this story has gone from being a bit of a freak show to bringing up some serious ethical issues where IVF is concerned. But let me know your thoughts on the matter in the comments.
First of all, I think she's a total whack job.
But, I will say that I have known several people, online and IRL, who because of their religious/ethical beliefs insist that every embryo created must be transferred (BTW, the term is transfer, not implant — doctors can only transfer embryos; the embryos implant themselves — but the confusion is understandable since every article I've read about the octuplets has used the wrong term).
Anyway, these are people who, even if they already had six children, would insist on transferring all the rest of their embryos, no matter how many. Of course none of them would try to transfer four or more at once, esp. if they've had successful transfers in the past. So, even though I wouldn't personally want to have my own baseball team, I can imagine non-crazy reasons to keep going with FET after having 6 kids.
But again, those non-crazy reasons don't apply in this case.
My RE always transfers two, not one, unless there's some specific reason for only one (I am under 35). But he would never transfer three in my situation, and would never ever transfer more than three. Seems like most REs have a similar stance.
Finally, I would like to point out that the spell check in my browser does not recognize the word octuplet. It suggests sextuplet or quintuplet instead — spell check seems to have some opinions of its own.
Thanks so much for the implanting-transferring correction. I'll make sure to apply it from now on. And yes, I too, know a couple of people who want to use all of their eggs. We're actually trying to figure out what to do with the rest of ours after we have 2, maybe 3 if the money gods are kind — but there's no way that I'm getting all of the remaining 6 transferred — especially all at once. That's just dangerous for me and the babies. Still, it's another ethical dilemma, which I plan to address in a future column.
That's funny about spell check. I'm sure the word will be included on a future update, however.
First of all, I think she's a total whack job.
But, I will say that I have known several people, online and IRL, who because of their religious/ethical beliefs insist that every embryo created must be transferred (BTW, the term is transfer, not implant — doctors can only transfer embryos; the embryos implant themselves — but the confusion is understandable since every article I've read about the octuplets has used the wrong term).
Anyway, these are people who, even if they already had six children, would insist on transferring all the rest of their embryos, no matter how many. Of course none of them would try to transfer four or more at once, esp. if they've had successful transfers in the past. So, even though I wouldn't personally want to have my own baseball team, I can imagine non-crazy reasons to keep going with FET after having 6 kids.
But again, those non-crazy reasons don't apply in this case.
My RE always transfers two, not one, unless there's some specific reason for only one (I am under 35). But he would never transfer three in my situation, and would never ever transfer more than three. Seems like most REs have a similar stance.
Finally, I would like to point out that the spell check in my browser does not recognize the word octuplet. It suggests sextuplet or quintuplet instead — spell check seems to have some opinions of its own.
Thanks so much for the implanting-transferring correction. I'll make sure to apply it from now on. And yes, I too, know a couple of people who want to use all of their eggs. We're actually trying to figure out what to do with the rest of ours after we have 2, maybe 3 if the money gods are kind — but there's no way that I'm getting all of the remaining 6 transferred — especially all at once. That's just dangerous for me and the babies. Still, it's another ethical dilemma, which I plan to address in a future column.
That's funny about spell check. I'm sure the word will be included on a future update, however.
I also think this lady is crazy….BUT I don't think I can support the regulation of this procedure. I am pro-choice and all those anti-choice people out there would have a field day with the government stepping in on the creation of lives when they are currently staying out of a woman's right to choose to keep a child or have an abortion….AND a mental evaluation is the equivalent of parent's consent or a mental evaluation for an abortion…so, I say, its a woman's right to choose. Period. Whether she decides to have 25 or none. I mean, I might think she is koo koo for having 14 kids, but the same could be said for her thinking a woman is completely crazy to get an abortion.
I also think this lady is crazy….BUT I don't think I can support the regulation of this procedure. I am pro-choice and all those anti-choice people out there would have a field day with the government stepping in on the creation of lives when they are currently staying out of a woman's right to choose to keep a child or have an abortion….AND a mental evaluation is the equivalent of parent's consent or a mental evaluation for an abortion…so, I say, its a woman's right to choose. Period. Whether she decides to have 25 or none. I mean, I might think she is koo koo for having 14 kids, but the same could be said for her thinking a woman is completely crazy to get an abortion.