<p>[Video</a> - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com](<a href=“Video News - CNN”>Video News - CNN)</p>
<p>What do you think about this?</p>
<p>My first reaction is - how incredibly selfish on the part of the mother!! I know there are grandparents raising children. But that is usually not their choice. This was an individual persons choice. The video also said she had medical concerns, diabetes, etc!! </p>
<p>My S, H and I were just discussing tonight, in regards to the women giving birth to 8 children, how science is getting ahead of, or not in compliance w/ ethics.</p>
<p>There are a lot of questions to be considered besides “It’s my right” or “I just want or need to.”</p>
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<p>What’s missing is COMMON SENSE on the part of some people!!</p>
<p>Unfortunately it is a slippery slope if we abrogate the right to procreate or not. It seems to me that the issue may be resolved vis-a-vis the mother of fourteen (6 + 8) when it comes to pass that she cannot care for them appropriately, and no one is coming forth to help her. As much as I love my children and my grandchild, it is hard to picture expending all the energy and time in life for that level of grandparent care giving…though maybe others are more energetic and willing.</p>
<p>I wonder whether the egg donor knew where her eggs would end up.</p>
<p>i agree, incredibly selfish.</p>
<p>I hear what everyone is saying. But I also think, well, can we really call it selfish? I mean if the kids would not have existed otherwise, is it really so bad for them? Sure, not your ideal mom perhaps (where on earth will a 60 plus woman get the energy for twins!?), but from the twins point of view, better to have been born to an older mom than not exist at all.</p>
<p>I guess I am not thrilled with it but i also respect people to live the lives they choose and be parents. i think gay couples or single parents should be able to have kids, older people, people with disabilities. Yes a challenge for those parents perhaps, and maybe it doesn’t fit our white-picket-fence ideals of what the “best” parent should be, but there are many many ways to be loved as a child. And sadly we know there are plenty of parents that look great on the surface but are toxic poison for their kids. </p>
<p>Someone like this very much wants to be a parent and I imagine they’ll give it 150%. Maybe at 60 you have less energy but more patience and wisdom, less longevity but more love to give, We should not be so quick to judge.</p>
<p>I don’t really have a problem with this. I am planning to have 8 when I’m 60. It is my new retirement plan.</p>
<p>starbright: I was a healthy 29 year old when I had twins and I agree How on Earth would a 60 year old with health concerns have the energy to care for newborn twins? But you kind of lost me when you asked if it would be better if they had not been born at all. No one involved seemed to ask that question. These babies were not conceived naturally, doctors “removed” one of the three developing fetuses to help preserve the health of the other two. I guess the woman and her doctors decided that it WOULD it have been better for that baby to not be born.</p>
<p>Selfish all around. qute “I had my Heart set on it.” reminds me of Varuca Salt only it wasn’t a goose that laid a golden egg she wanted it was a human life.</p>
<p>Imagine an 80+ year old “grandma” with a walker showing up for these kids’ college graduation… :rolleyes: There is a good reason H and I will never have another kid.</p>
<p>Cinniesmom, I’m not making a pro-life argument (I’m strongly pro-choice). My only point is if we are feeling its selfish, but why? Because it’s unfair to the kids? As opposed to what? </p>
<p>If you had an old mom, would you wish you had not been born at all? I wouldn’t. My mom, who was quite a terrible mom and mentally ill her whole life should probably have not had me. But what the heck, she did, I’m glad, or I’d not exist! I ended up pretty generally happy and contributing to society.</p>
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<p>There is no “point of view” in a state of non-existence. What’s so tragic about the non-existence of all the hundreds of thousands of hypothetical children each fertile human being might possibly conceive? Conversely, I think it could be strongly argued that the world might have been better off if some people had never been conceived—Hitler comes immediately to mind, as do Pol Pot, and people like Charles Manson.</p>
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<p>What “them” would we been speaking of, if this woman had gone gently into that good and naturally proscribed menopause? Bad for whom?</p>
<p>^I know where you are coming from (I think). I find it philosophically challenging to think about, the notion of existence. Perhaps the issue for me is sorted out by differentiating between the general concept of some people having kids at all (before they conceive) and what I think of the ‘poor kids’ AFTER the children are born. Now that the kids are here, they do exist and have a will to live, so it’s hard fo me to work backwards and say it’s unfair to them. </p>
<p>I believe in choice. I also tthink the world would be a much better place with LESS children in general (that is less people in it). I also see many many people who should never have been parents. </p>
<p>I think there is something deeper in people’s anger when reproductive technology is involved. Perhaps because its eems more extravagant, or more of a choice perhaps? More purposeful? We don’t rant on boards with as strong emotions about the teen moms, the people who can’t afford the 3rd kid, the people who yell at their children in the mall. All kinds of people who are probably unfit to parent. We don’t call them selfish. But we arbitrarily decide 60 is too old and deserves our strongest condemnation. </p>
<p>As a hobby I run, 10ks and marathons. There is a whole class of older person with a LOT more energy and physical fitness than most of us on this board. </p>
<p>And I sure don’t see anyone mad at all those rich famous men who have children very late in life.</p>
<p>starbright, you raise several very valid points. I tend to agree with you. Although this story does raise some interesting ethical issues surrounding who should and shouldn’t have access to IVF, I think that being outraged at this woman and her husband rather than those who you detail in your post, or any MORE than those who you detail in your post, is disingenuous. This is not a choice I would have made, nor is it a choice that most women would make, but who knows, these kids may end up having a wonderful life with these parents who obviously wanted them very much.</p>