<p>How can one be paid for IVF?</p>
<p>Could it be that this woman was a surrogate? Is she planning to give these infants up for adoption after all? If she is a surrogate this time around, then the statement “she got paid for it” might make sense. Maybe the fertility specialist arranged for surrogacy. Someone really needs to dig a little deeper. Would this even be legal?</p>
<p>Was she used as a guinea pig for testing new procedures? Sort of like a patient in a clinical trial might get reimbursed for his/her time? There are people making a living from being a clinical trial subject. Seriously. CNN interviewed one of those guys a few years ago - I was shocked.</p>
<p>^^ Wouldn’t there be any guidelines for clinical trials? In this case the mother could have died, and 8 babies could have died or been born with multiple disabilities? The babies are far from out of the woods.</p>
<p>That would seem so unethical to me, bunsenburner. It’s one thing to be paid for clinical trials that only impact yourself, but another thing to be paid for trials that create (and destroy?) human life. </p>
<p>Maybe she has been selling her eggs?</p>
<p>momofinca, I agree. I think it would highly unethical to risk 9 human lives for a clinical trial. There was a very high risk of morbidity and mortality to do this.</p>
<p>Editing this to add: Just to think of the consequences also to her other 6 children and to their grandparents if the mother had died during childbirth!</p>
<p>Maybe the mom meant that the treatment was paid for, by insurance for instance, not that she was given money above and beyond the cost of the treatment.</p>
<p>When I think of all of the tremendous effort that I have put forth in raising my 2 kids, one of whom has special needs, I can only agree that this woman has severe mental health issues. What do you call it when a person thinks that she can single-handedly do a good job raising 14 kids, all under the age of 7? Mega-delusions of grandeur?</p>
<p>And, if indeed, she was helped to conceive all of these kids by member(s) of the medical profession who knew her situation, I am horrified by their actions. It is possible that she lied to them about how many kids she already had.</p>
<p>I, for one, cannot wait until the media and whatever legal agency monitors such things track down the doctor who did this and put his or her feet to the fire (of public scrutiny). It’s a fascinating situation, and I’m very curious to understand what medical and ethical decision-making went into the doctor’s decision to implant the eight or more embryos. </p>
<p>I’m not happy about the idea that these 14 children are already at risk of living in dire financial straits. Even the grandmother said in one of the articles something to the effect of “She always wanted children. Thank God she couldn’t have them.” Even her own mother thought it was a good thing that she was naturally unable to conceive.</p>
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<p>Did anyone else notice this? Is this true? If so, this mom truly has her hands full with this single child. Children on the autism spectrum need care, love, organization, and sometimes special programming in school.</p>
<p>I wonder if any of the new 8 will also have autism (which can run in families, tends to affect boys more than girls… and there are 6 new boys), or cerebral palsy? I really hope she gives some serious thought to adoption.</p>
<p>Word on the street is that this patient got started with IVF being an egg donor. She was paid to be hyperstimulated, agreeing to split the eggs that resulted with a receipient who paid for both of their medical care. She produced both eggs she was paid for and eggs that she had fertilized with donor sperm all during one or two sessions. One by one or two by two she had them implanted. Then in the end, she had all that were left implanted one last time. </p>
<p>There is an investigation as to whether the clinic involved knew what was going on, or if some of this happened “behind the scenes.” </p>
<p>The grandmother of the children is now being quoted as saying she and the grandfather will be leaving as soon as the mother is discharged home.</p>
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<p>Less children, more digits on each:
[Baby</a> Born In Bay Area With 12 Functioning Fingers, 12 Toes - News Story - KTVU San Francisco](<a href=“http://www.ktvu.com/news/18608582/detail.html]Baby”>http://www.ktvu.com/news/18608582/detail.html)</p>
<p>From the UK Times on-line: “Octuplets mother wants Oprah to turn her into a $2m TV star”- actually she wants either Oprah or Diane Sawyer.</p>
<p>Since this woman is not a responsible person, the question is whether or not People or Oprah or National Enquirer or whomever can meet her behaviour with an approach that does not validate or somehow reinforce this sort of ridiculous junk. The only thing that could make this (cannot take care of my 14 children some % of whom might have special needs) situation worse would be to make her some sort of a hero or role model.</p>
<p>I believe she is looking for a free home, clothing, furniture, and publicity…meaning $</p>
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<p>Would it be their business if your family decided to have a lot of children without reproductive assistance? No. </p>
<p>As deeply disturbed as I am about this story, and as strongly as I support guidelines for doctors to follow, I am already irritated by how people who can concieve naturally seem to believe they should have some say in the reproductive lives of those of us who cannot. </p>
<p>The millions of us who deal with infertility responsibly are not represented by this woman nor should more policies be enacted because of her actions. We really do not need any “help” in deciding how to deal with the various issues; including left over embryos.</p>
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<p>Being an only child puts a person at no addition risk for emotional or social problems. Do some research before insulting the children of many of the posters here.</p>
<p>Futher, the cost to society of neglected children is both definable and measureable. I’d like to see the agreed upon definition of “overprotected” and how this alleged cost has been calculated.</p>
<p>Oh, I was not suggesting that this woman was part of a legitimate clinical trial. There is no shortage of quacks in our country. Since the fertility clinic had no problem with throwing out the IVF guidelines and medical ethics out of the window with this latest round of IVF, there could have been something else going on at the clinic. </p>
<p>Question: how could she be an egg donor when one of her kids had autism?</p>
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<p>Well I kindly disagree. As an Ob/Gyn, an infertility patient, and the parent of adopted children, I do think there are ethical and social issues here. When a single parent who has 6 children creates a situation where she now adds eight children AND CANNOT PROVIDE FOR 14 CHILDREN, policy may need to be created. Her freedoms cannot come at the expense of others Kaiser has already said that the medical bills for this situation will in in the MILLIONS. That money will come at the expense of other Kaiser participants. The social services that this family will need will come at the expense of taxpayers. Who knows, Kaiser may be providing her care under a Medicaid agreement and it may all be footed by taxpayers. </p>
<p>I think the biggest “crime” here is that 8 embryos could be transferred to a mentally ill woman. When there is assisted reproduction, there needs to be medical guidelines created by ethicists and the like to deal with outcomes that would NEVER happen in nature. </p>
<p>Now if this patient worked in a clinic and skirted the rules in order to be able to have 8 embryos transferred… she is even more mentally ill that we know. And the media feeding frenzy as well as the country’s facination is not going to help this situation.</p>
<p>BB, couldn’t she have been an egg donor prior to having some/all of her first 6 children? Also, I think that symptoms of autism often don’t show up until around 2 y/o. If the parent did not get those symptoms evaluated by a physician, the child might not be diagnosed until much later (ie: kindergarten age or later).</p>
<p>" As deeply disturbed as I am about this story, and as strongly as I support guidelines for doctors to follow, I am already irritated by how people who can concieve naturally seem to believe they should have some say in the reproductive lives of those of us who cannot. "</p>
<p>But this woman has proven, 6 times over that she CAN indeed reproduce.
If not for taxpayer support, which most of us who have posted our opinions here are, she will have to rely on outside support, whether it be from media sources looking for a scoop or welfare or another form of public assistance.</p>
<p>Why shouldn’t the public have a say if we aren’t all destined to support this bizarre case of birth by science ?</p>
<p>If she was a financially secure individual with the parental or family support there to nurture this litter she has born, then it is just a matter of opinion…morally , ethically , financially.
Most families do not , by choice , produce children they cannot afford to rear.</p>
<p>This woman crossed so many lines and had the support of the doctor who was responsible for this…I am thinking it was about money and he/ she chose to ignore the other issues surrounding the creation of these babies.</p>
<p>No matter how these children were brought into this world, it is an issue that raises some serious questions</p>