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So, let’s recap. You’ve just given birth to octuplets, and you already had six kids, leaving you with 14. You’re not married, you don’t have a job, you’re living off disability, and you and your 14 children are crashing Grandma’s place. Grandma has to pay for all of the diapers and food and clothes and toys for the 14 kids because you, of course, won’t go get a job. Because Grandma cannot afford all of this, she is now in foreclosure on her home. You’re about to be homeless.
So what do you spend those hard-earned disability dollars on?
And not just any make-up. M.A.C. brand make-up. The pricey kind. No Cover Girl for Nadya Suleman!
It just keeps getting better. OctoMom just left the MAC cosmetic counter at a Nordstrom department store.
She was at the Brea Mall near L.A. this afternoon. She bought stuff, though we don’t know exactly what. But here’s what we do know. Eye shadow costs around 15 bucks a pop.
She may soon not have a place to live but she’ll sure look good.
UPDATE: OctoMom blew some of her hard earned handout money on one tube of clear lip gloss — which ran the food stamp user a cool $14.50 plus tax. In comparison, a 48-pack of Pampers usually runs around $16.99.
Now, that’s what I call priorities. What a loving, nurturing, not selfish mother. She and her 14 kids are about to be homeless, and she has no job… and instead of spending the little money she has on her kids, she’s making sure that she looks good.
Anyone care to keep defending this woman?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Al says: There are some people who think she was selfish not to abort some of them after they were already implanted. I would certainly defend her against that idea, but that is about all. She shouldn’t have had all of them (or really any of them) implanted in the first place, but killing them off is not the answer either.
Lisa says: She went in for one or two and got eight instead. Not her fault. She didn’t need to try for anymore kids when she already had six at home to provide for. But what good are your pointed remarks? I hope you give the problems in your household the same level of attention.
Chuck says: I was very angry when I first heard that the mother already had 6 children before the births of the octuplets. And I was OUTRAGED when people tried to defend her and her doctor’s in vitro procedure. It was the HEIGHT of irresponsibility for her and her doctor to implant SIX embryos under_ANY_circumstances, much less when she was already a SINGLE mother of 6 very young children.
My family was not a big family, but I do know that big families usually work best when not only are there 2 parents to care for the children but also when the older siblings are able to help care for the younger ones. That is not the case here. The eldest child was only 7 years old when the octuplets were born. How is a 7 year-old going to help her care for THIRTEEN little children and infants?! The difference in ages between the siblings in most big families would be spread out a lot more than what exists in this situation.
Also, this is not a question of abortion at all. She CHOSE to have in vitro in all of her pregnancies. This was not a case of multiple births due to the use of fertility drugs. She was implanted with a staggering SIX embryos during her fertility procedures. Unbelievable. The danger to the mother and the fetuses cannot be ethically defended.
This story is important for many reasons. First, it shows the selfishness that is more and more prevalent in our society nowadays and how people are willing to put their own desires ahead of the well being of others.
Secondly, this doctor (and any like him) should be stripped of his medical license STAT!
And lastly, we have to make sure that these children are being taken care of despite their mother’s irresponsible behavior.
[I also have a suspicion that there might be more to this story in regards to the fertility doctor’s *use* of this woman. His lack of ethics was so egregious that I have a really bad “Dr. Mengele” feeling about him….]
Stephen J. says: I’m beginning to wonder if this woman really does have some kind of mental disability or psychological disorder. She seems very unconscious of the difficulty her family is in. I could be wrong – perhaps she really does have some kind of uber-serene faith in Providence I can only dream of aspiring to – but you can only veer so far from pragmatic awareness of your situation before these kinds of questions start occurring to people.
As for stripping the doctor of his medical license, I’m not so sure that would be merited. One thing people may not be aware of about fertility treatments like this is that what happened to Nadya Suleiman is an insanely low-probability outcome – in general, multiple embryos have to be implanted to have a reasonable chance of even one becoming viable. (The fact that the other embryos are created and implanted in the almost certain knowledge some of them won’t survive is one of the reasons the Catholic Church forbids IVF.) The doctor in question no doubt thought quite reasonably that it would produce one baby at least, maybe two, three at absolute most. That all six would be viable, and that two would split to be twins… nobody would have anticipated that, not even Nadya.
And given that once she found out all six had begun gestating successfully, you couldn’t abort one without aborting all six-in-the-process-of-becoming-eight, it’s a little unfair to demand perfect hindsight out of her at that point. I imagine the doctors overseeing Nadya’s pregnancy gave her multiple warnings all throughout the process of the likelihood of spontaneous miscarriage and losing *all* of them, which is far from rare in multiple-fetus pregnancies of three or higher. (That constant cautioning, for all we know, may have contributed to her desire to keep them. Nothing like thinking you’re going to lose multiple children at once to make you fanatically committed to holding on to them.)
It was foolish and selfish to seek IVF when you already had six children and were unable to care for them. But I really do wonder what kind of stable family life Nadya Suleiman has ever had herself. I would not be surprised to find out the previous six children are only half-siblings for the most part. And I note nobody has ever mentioned a father or husband in describing Nadya’s background. Somebody this desperate for children to fill the void of affection in her life is probably somebody so starved of it that she isn’t, to put it mildly, thinking very straight.
That doesn’t make her stupidity less stupid, or her children less in need of intervention, but if she is not to be more pitied than censured, I think I can find room in my heart for at least a little pity. Taking one more foolish step along a road you know is unsafe, but love travelling anyway, only to find it giving way disastrously under you is something that has happened to all of us.
That said, what pity I have for her is pretty much swamped by my pity for her children. She needs to be taken in hand, now.
Chris M-G says: And now on the news: she’s in the market for a MILLION DOLLAR HOUSE. 1.25 million to be exact- and while the four bedrooms would have the size to fit her horridly bloated kin, I doubt she really needs the pool as an extra.
Karen says: I would be disgusted by this whole story even if this was a happily married couple. Having six children already and going through unnatural means to have any more is just insanely greedy in my opinion. It does suggest mental illness, and having kids to fill a void in your life is a horrible reason to have kids. Everything else about this woman, including her obvious lack of priorities, is just icing on the cake. Is anyone actually donating money to her, now that they know it will just be spent on makeup and future plastic surgery?
I just hope she’s got some kind of a plan to cash in on her 15 minutes, she’ll need it. Shouldn’t she at least be blogging?
Chuck says: “One thing people may not be aware of about fertility treatments like this is that what happened to Nadya Suleiman is an insanely low-probability outcome – in general, multiple embryos have to be implanted to have a reasonable chance of even one becoming viable.”
I would very much like to respond to this statement.
1. I am not a medical doctor and do not have a medical degree.
2. I was fully aware of that fact from Day One.
3. The Hippocratic Oath requires doctors to “do no harm” (specifically: “never do harm to anyone”).
In my opinion, this includes the unborn.
4. People do not have the right to HAVE children.
They have the right to *TRY* to have children via ‘natural’ means. 😉 You cannot *force* a doctor to help you reproduce. Not having children is NOT a health problem. Nadya Suleman had to PAY for each of her IVF procedures. One way or another. Having to pay for something — by definition — means you do not have the right to it.
5. The recommended guidelines for IVF implantation are one to three embryos (*maybe* four). NEVER SIX!
6. The health risks to the mother (and fetuses) rise greatly with each embryo that is implanted.
I believe (and I sincerely apologize if I am wrong) that the odds of the fetuses developing birth defects or other health problems (including death!) arising for them or the mother may double or more with each successful embryo implantation.
To say that nobody could have anticipated octuplets is a cop-out.
If you’re willing to use the argument that she needed multiple embryos to increase the probability of just one becoming viable, why stop at six? Why not 8? Or ten? How about a baker’s dozen?
Maybe because *common sense* says that a woman is not designed to have 6 or more embryos in her body at a time!
id est…IT WAS UNSAFE!
Trying to ‘guarantee’ a pregnancy by implanting more and more embryos is UNETHICAL. As I stated previously…NO ONE HAS A RIGHT TO HAVE A CHILD!! Children are a blessing and a responsibility. They are NOT a right.
What makes this whole situation even worse is that it appears that she may have been implanted with 6 embryos DURING EACH OF HER PREGNANCIES!!
(Oscar and Mike play Golf!)
Perhaps “what happened to Nadya Suleman is an *insanely* low-probability outcome” because a doctor would have to *be* insane to implant SIX embryos into her in the first place!
Chris M-G says: Dave M-
She SHOULD be blogging- then she can write daily about her hard life and we can see all the more how she squanders *our* money.
Judi says: I have seen all the lovely pictures and news clips of a loving mother talking to her dear sweet babies in the hospital, and playing on the floor with her other six at home – kissing them and telling them how much she loves them. I don’t see any pictures of her or her poor mother washing 30 loads of shitty diapers, or fixing cafeteria sized meals, or changing the oil in the car (who on the dole can afford Oilcan Henry), while at the same time holding down a full time job and going to school to achieve her Masters! This woman is delusional at the least and ALL of her children should be placed with families who will care for THEIR needs – not the needs of this narcissistic – self indulgent – piece of work. Pure proof that she is not fit to BE a mother is the way she talks to her own mother! Anyone who is buying her line – call me! I have some ocean front property for sale in Arizona!
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