Octo-Mom as a Poster Girl for Opponents of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

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Ok, heres the deal. What this woman did was completely irresponsible. If you want to argue those embryos are human life, fine. Donate them to couples that couldn't fertilize their own eggs. Dont implant them in your own body and make your other fetus' suffer. When there is more than one fetus in a womb, there are already risks. Delayed growth, stunted lungs and lowered nutrients to each fetus. This woman was asking for her children to have health problems. With two, even three babies, they may be born premature but they can usually survive with lowered health risks. When you you have more than that your risks of permanent damages are much higher

Brittany Bowman of ME 3:42PM March 24, 2009

Which of the babies are twins?

Nadya said early on that 2 eggs divided into twins and yet I have NEVER heard about which of the babies are twins to each other. I think it is BS and she had a DOZEN eggs implanted!!!

Donna of MA 12:07PM March 24, 2009

No job, no money, no home, no husband, what was this woman thinking? Now she says that she has money coming in from deals that she is making. Good, maybe then she can pay the hospital bill that is coming due! OOPS sorry, we tax-payers are footing that bill along with just about everything else after the glamor is gone and she ends up on welfare again. Maybe then the state will step in and take all those children from this un-fit mother!

Ricky of CA 9:08PM March 12, 2009

Chicken eggs sold at the supermarket are usually NOT fertilized, meaning they aren't unborn chickens. (If they WERE fertilized, then they WOULD be unborn, developing chickens.)

Not that I think we should be eating them either way, but the point you're trying to make doesn't hold up.

Brian Gillin of PA 12:49AM March 12, 2009

Ummm, doesn't anyone other than me think that maybe, just maybe, what she did was irresponsible? Being pro-life is one thing, but, as they argue, these are human lives. As such, I really don't think anyone should be behaving as those what this woman has done is acceptable. Besides, a human egg is about as much a human as an egg from the grocery store is a chicken. And the chicken does not cause a reaction in those allergic to eggs.

Morgan of PA 10:31PM March 11, 2009

The suggestion that anti-ESCR people think everyone should go out and have octuplets is ridiculous. Yoest was merely making the point that these embryos are human beings -- and we know from basic human reproductive biology that this is the case -- and that giving them a chance to live is obviously better than killing them.

IVF needs an overhaul, yes, but the answer is not merely to limit the number of embryos who can be implanted, as this will merely exacerbate the situation of embryonic human beings being frozen, but rather to limit the number of embryos who can be created. In Italy, for example, no more than three embryos can be created by a couple at any one time, and no more can be created than they intend to implant. If that makes IVF more difficult, then that's just one more flaw with IVF.

Brian Gillin of PA 8:33PM March 11, 2009

BTW, Octomon is a poster child for banning IVF period... but you're a moron... so you can't see that... so get a new job... k... k...k?

Yarrrr of IL 7:06PM March 11, 2009

You are a moron... get a new job...

Yarrrr of IL 7:04PM March 11, 2009

I've never read your blog before, but do you make it a habit to be intellectually dishonest?

The speaker was simply pointing out that embryos are created and exist for one reason--to become babies. That's why they exist, not to be cut up and experimented on by scientists in the name of "research".

Furthermore, understanding that some people may have a different view (gasp!) than you, don't you think there are many troubling ethical aspects of assisted reproduction for those who are pro-life? In other words, if your principles tell you that human embryos shouldn't be discarded or destroyed like meaningless garbage (which you apparently would be all for), why is it so "weird" that you would want to give them the best chance to survive, i.e., become babies?

Octo-Mom, snoflake babies, etc, prove that the purpose of having human embryos is to bring about new human life, something that is special and should be protected.

For those that justify creating embryos for the purposes of destroying them in the name of scientific progress, do you think all human embryos are worthless and should be treated no differently than, say, pig embryos or cow embryos? Why not? What if one day technology allowed school teachers to have students dissect live embryos for biology class? Why not human fetuses at say, 6 months of development? 8 1/2 months? Where do you draw the line?

Let the baby live of AL 5:34PM March 11, 2009

Just to give you a update about octo-mom,

here's what happens when an individual implants "cells" in women who already have 6 children, no income, receive disability benefits, and social security benefits for children born as a result with birth defects.

A report out today claims that social workers from Kaiser Permante Hospital were disappointed and suprised that octo-mom never bothered to show up for an inspection appointment yesterday or today at her new 2,500 square foot house in La Habra. The house needs to be drastically modified to meet certain criteria before the infants can be released to octo-mom's care. Apparently, octo-mom doesn’t care enough about her hospitalized children to even bother with trivial things like accommodations for her babies. Perhaps she had an appointment with her plastic surgeon or with a prospective publicist now that yet another one dropped her. She certainly appears not to be dedicated to the best interests of her poor infants, but rather her long, sought-after celebrity status.

When she was on Dr. Phil talking about bringing home the first babies, she mentioned a baby named “Emilie”? According to the names she selected, “Emilie” is not one of them! Isn’t that incredulous? She doesn’t even remember the babies names. Her aloof, ambivalent attitude demonstrates that she is totally self-serving, greedy and nuts.

Truthfully, employing octo-mom as symbolic of his standing on this issue is plain ignorant.

bigbucks of ND 5:22PM March 11, 2009

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God & Country

Dan Gilgoff covers religion for U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War, and is a former politics editor at beliefnet. E-mail Dan at godandcountry@usnews.com.

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