The Challenges with Octuplets

Across the country, people are questioning Nadya Suleman's intentions after giving birth to octuplets on January 26 through in vitro fertilization.   The octuplets give Ms. Suleman 14 children under the age of seven. 

From the newspaper articles I have read, it seems Ms. Suleman overdid herself.  I respect that she and her octuplets have made history but I cannot commend her decision.  Ms. Suleman, a single mother, already has six children ranging from the age of two to seven and seems to have no current job.  This leads me to wonder whether or not Ms. Suleman is capable of physically and financially, raising 14 children on her own. 

I am afraid that Ms. Suleman will throw her children into the lime light of the media, with the ulterior motive to make money off of the history making births.  She has already had numerous offers from media outlets for financial compensation.  I don't think it is right for Ms. Suleman to expose her newborn octuplets to the media for a pretty penny.  If she exposes her newborns it should be to show doctors, fertility specialists and other medical professionals her miracle of eight healthy babies. 

I also question the ethics of having so many embryos implanted.  First of all, Ms. Suleman's ethics.  She had the chance for selective reduction but refused to do so and even again when they were fetuses.  Ms. Suleman defied the chance to decrease the health risks for herself and for the embryos that were implanted.  Secondly, the fertility doctor's ethics to implant so many embryos is shameful.  A woman on welfare that already has six children does not need eight more.  Further, wouldn't it be deemed too risky to implant so many embryos in a woman in Ms. Suleman's state of being?  Ms. Suleman and the doctors involved were both radically unethical.  I am no doctor, but it makes me wonder if the fame and glory of octuplets got in the way of both parties sound ethical judgment.

Many questions circle around in my head but a very important one is: did Ms. Suleman ever consider the amount of money it would cost not only to raise the children but to just give birth to them through a Caesarean section and then the remaining hospital bills?  The people of California and America will be paying for Ms. Suleman's children.  Doctors will have to watch the octuplets for health complications, both physically and mentally.  The hospital bills will run between $1.5 to $3 million.  If the studies about the cost of raising children are correct, raising one child to adulthood costs $2.5 million. What if the octuplets turn out to have serious health problems and are in and out of hospitals for the rest of their lives?  If the octuplets do happen to have health problems, how will Ms. Suleman afford the medical bills?  How can Ms. Suleman live with herself knowing the risk of giving birth to octuplets is astronomical?  Both Ms. Suleman and her doctors should be ashamed.