I have avoided any comment on the controversies regarding the recent birth of octuplets. But this latest revelation was too much.
Octuplet's mom on food stamps, publicist says: Three of Nadya Suleman's older kids also get federal support for disabilities
This after she assured Ann Curry in an interview that: 'I'm not receiving help from the government. I'm not trying to expect anything from anybody. [I] just wanted to do it on my own. Any resources that someone would really, really want to help us, I will accept, I would embrace.'
I'm sure she would; 14 kids is a lot, especially for a single parent. Don't get me wrong; I don't want her children to starve, and certainly if they have disabilities, SSI is appropriate. But it does constitute receiving help from the government, which means she out and out lied, although her publicist has made it an issue of 'she isn't on welfare, therefore she doesn't get government aid.' Who does she think pays for food stamps and SSI?
So not only does she already have six very young children (I think the oldest is seven) three of whom are disabled, she chose to have eight more, surely knowing that such a high multiple birth would put the children at risk for major disabilities or death [the father, according to Suleman, is the same for all fourteen children, but while open to being a part of their lives at some point, is not presently.]
Her own mother says she is obsessed with having children and that it was inadvisable for her to have this many. Medical ethicists are concerned that any legitimate fertility doctor would 1) have given fertility treatments for someone who had so many children already and 2) did not use proper techniques to prevent such a large number of eggs to implant. The medical board of California is investigating. In many multiple birth situations gifts are showered upon the family by corporations, but there are many who believe she did this just to get money in the form of such gifts, book deals, movie deals, that sort of thing.
The psychology of this really bothers me. I am not privy to Ms Suleman's psychiatric profile, but this seems not so much just a desire to have a large family as an obsessive need for it. Let's face it, if these were cats instead of children, we would call it hoarding and the humane society would come and take them away because the well-meaning but mentally ill owner would be unable to care for many felines in the house. I really wonder if this is a similar disorder.
Sure, some people such as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt seem to collect children, but they're well able to afford them, taking care of every material need (although I question how much parental attention each individual child gets the bigger and bigger the family, so psychological needs may be another matter).
There are some who would say this is none of our business, that this is her choice. Well, one, I think we should all be concerned about the welfare of all fourteen children, just because a society should care about its children. But also, one estimate says that it will cost between $1.5 million to $3 million before the octuplets are even able to leave the hospital. I hope she's independently wealthy, because otherwise I'm thinking that this is not a bill Ms Suleman is covering herself, unless she has stupendous insurance. Even mine, which pays for all to do with a pregnancy and delivery but the first co-pay for an office visit, would balk at that. (Although they also don't pay for infertility treatment, which is also not cheap.) And unless some corporate sponsor comes in and takes care of it, the hospital will have to write it off or the government will have to pay somehow, and that means either public dollars being used, or higher health care costs due to such cases that strain the rest of our wallets.
According to the story Birth of octuplets worsened mom's back injury, she was a psychiatric technician at a mental hospital from 1997 through December, much of the time unable to work due to a back injury on the job in 1999. During the time she has been on disability, she has received $165,000 in payments, which sounds like a lot, but that's about $18,000 a year, and she does live in a state that has a high cost of living. All fourteen children were conceived in vitro. The story says that after having three miscarriages, the birth of her first child made her hope that it would be good for her marriage to Marcos Gutierrez, which lasted from 1996-2008, although they separated in 2000. But if she felt the pregnancy would help her marriage, and all fourteen children are from the same father, doesn't that imply (barring adultery or a sperm bank, the latter of which is unlikely as she apparently knows the father and talks to him occasionally) that Gutierrez is the father? Or is my reasoning flawed? His whereabouts are apparently unknown as yet, but I'm sure the media will ferret him out to find out if he is, indeed, the father, because I'm thinking if it's not just some random sperm from a bank the father has parental rights and a responsibility for child support, although fourteen children would probably bankrupt anyone. I don't get how she could afford the in vitro. I've known someone who went through it and it is not cheap. To have gone through it several times requires some serious cash. Maybe this questionable doctor gave her a bulk rate. Okay, that was unfair. But still, it makes you wonder what kind of money trail there is and what the arrangements were for all of this.
There are just so many questions in this case. I don't know what Nadya Suleman really wanted out of this, but her life is going to be under the microscope until people are satisfied that the best interests of the children are served, and also, I suspect, for as long as the media keeps an interest in this story.
UPDATE:
Taxpayers may be covering octuplet mom’s bills: Hospital where 33-year-old gave birth asking state to reimburse its costs
Told you so. As if California isn't in the hole enough already--I mean, they already have workers on furloughs and they may be paying for this instead of vital services or allowing state workers to actually draw a paycheque? I hope some very hard questions are asked of this woman and the doctor who helped her have these children, and I hope a close eye is kept on the welfare of the children, as well, because they're so delicate and will need a lot of care, both medically and through nurturing. I don't know what kind of nurturer she is, but it really doesn't sound like she's in a position to pay for the children she wanted, and I don't think anyone's going to come rescue her at this point--there's been so much negative press.
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