What are people's take on this whole thing where the single woman who already had 6 children was artificially inseminated with 8 more?
[URL]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/10/octuplet-mom-nadya-sulema_n_165508.html[/URL]
OK, first off, I don't believe that the government has any right to tell a woman what she can do with her body, and I'm also not suggesting that a woman needs to have a spouse or significant other in the picture to have children. Not saying that at all.
Here's the thing, though. She was already on food stamps when she was implanted, and now she has 8 more mouths to feed -- let alone the question of how she managed to scrape up the $8-15K necessary for artificial insemination while on food stamps in the first place. It honestly pisses me off. While taxpayer dollars are going to feed the children she's already unable to support financially, she's busy socking away cash to add more mouths that the general public is going to have to support. If you're Angelina Jolie and have the financial resources to add an unlimited stream of kids to your family, by all means, go forward. Bringing that many kids into the world without the means to support them, though, is lunacy.
The other part of it has to do with the well-being of the children themselves. We just had our first child last Friday, and my wife and I are loving our time with her, even though it's been hectic. Multiply that by 8, though, and subtract 1 support person from the equation, and you have a recipe for disaster, I think, particularly when there are already 6 other children aged 7 and below to attend to. If that weren't enough on her plate, one of her existing children has autism. No way does the care for her children not suffer.
Again, not saying she should not be [I]allowed [/I]to do this, but it strikes me as enormously selfish and irresponsible.