The Two-Faced DNA Calls Out the Two-Faced Media

octuplets, prop 8, ivf, dna, stupid,
(or, Fun with Comments)

EuripidesDoesn'tKnowWhatAncientGreekDidWithTheirSpareTime is all up in arms about the two-faced media picking on the unemployed single mother with 6 children who deliberately chose to have 8 more embryos implanted at once.

I find this extra hysterical in light of the below comments from members of the DNA in reaction to the exact same story.

Pearl said: Okay, bad news is that the father and mother are not married. That's a travesty for these kids. But the good news is that she refused to kill her unexpected multiples.

the pomegranateapple said: this is a very weird story. i'm so happy to see someone caring about life before birth, but i'm concerned that she purposefully implanted without a father.

Pearl responding to another commenter: Apparently the mother and father of the children are unwed. The mother has declared bankruptcy, is not a US citizen and has no intention of becoming one, and they are living on public assistance. And then there comes the question of why she did IVF if she already had six children. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying we should regulate number of children, but it's obvious that she didn't need IVF to get pregnant, so was it to purposefully birth multiples? And to what end? Anyway, these are my new questions. I stand by my applaud for her decision to preserve life, even while I wonder...

So tell me, what part about that was any less two-faced than the media's coverage of the same story?

The Very Definition of Irony

tradition, traditional, octuplets, ethics, ethical, medical, prop 8, religion, religious, conservative, christian, ivf, embryo

The bigotsphere has been running around like my dog with a bag over his head (see above) concerning the woman who underwent IVF resulting in octuplets, even though she already had 6 children and was single.

At first, it was "look at this brave warrior for life who refused selective abortions". Then, "oh wait, she's single . . . that's bad."(see the comments section in the very same post. these people will turn on you like rabid wolverines on meth.) Now that the media is questioning the ethics of implanting that many embryos into a single woman who already has 6 children, it's "how dare you deny some poor woman a medical procedure?"

First of all, this isn't really our business, now is it? I think it is unethical to implant that many embryos into anyone because of the very real medical dangers involved. Also, the only reason anyone ever implants that many embryos is because they think most of them won't take- this is reasonable in the case of an infertile woman, especially an older, infertile woman.* The woman in question here was not older, and, given that she had 6 children already, 2 of them twins, she was certainly not infertile.

In this case, IVF was not a "medical procedure" we had no business denying her. It was entirely unecessary. Clearly, all she had to do in order to get pregnant was have sex. IVF is a very necessary procedure for a lot of women: women who can't get pregnant the old fashioned way. To compare their very real need for IVF, and their tremendous suffering if they are denied it, to this other woman's . . . well, who knows, but she sure didn't need IVF . . . is offensive.

In conclusion, for people to celebrate this woman while simultaneously castigating and mocking her is, well, this time it is irony.

Enjoy.

*Doctors who practice IVF still don't implant that many embryos as a general rule, because even in the case of an infertile woman close to menopause, you're still risking high order multiples. Btw, if you are currently struggling with infertility, I wish you all the best, and I repeat: IVF is a necessary medical procedure for you.