brood, brace, bunch, clutch, herd, flock, litter, pack, pod
oooh I learned a new word today
multiparous: producing many or more than one at a birth

 

Wow, eight babies. I can only imagine what that would do to my cholesterol level.

I'm in DrC's camp on this one.

 

Reading between the lines of the news stores, This woman badly needs mental health intervention. If some M.D. actually implanted her with eight embryos, he/she ought to have their medical license revoked.

 

 

No I just have no comment on this situation, y'all would not like my answer anyways.

 

OK, I'll play devil's advocate here (as usual )

I doubt very much that eight embryos were implanted with the goal of having eight babies pop out. I suspect the physician who preformed the procedure expected one or two of the embryos to be viable to term. Either way we don't know so I don't consider it my place to pass judgement. Same for the decision not to "selectively" reduce the number fetises. (I agree, that subject is best left alone here.)

If the mom is really as good with kids as others claim and if they will be part of a loving happy family that can afford to raise such a brood, then they are far better off than lots of other children.

I hope the comments on the mother's mental health are in jest, given the lack of any clear evidence one way or another. I think grandma's use of the term "obsessed" was an unfortunate choice.

But, dang...that's a lot of diapers!

 

I'm all for having kids, but considering all the circumstances, I think this is insane. I'd like to think she can afford to rear all these children, but I think we know otherwise.

 

I agree, but....there was a mention of an appropriate number being implanted based on the mother's age, etc...I'll have to find that article and link it. The article made sense to me.

 

Here it is.

Dr. R. Dale McClure, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said in a statement Friday that the organization has been working to reduce the number of high-order multiple births resulting from in vitro fertilization treatments.

"If this resulted from an IVF treatment, we can say that transferring eight embryos in an IVF cycle is well beyond our guidelines," he said.

The guidelines state that patients under the age of 35 would not have more than two embryos implanted "in the absence of extraordinary circumstances." In fact, a woman in this age group with a favorable prognosis should have only one embryo transferred, the guidelines say.

The mother of the octuplets is believed to be 33 years old, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Ethical question

 

Having a track record (6 kids already) meant that implanting eight would be highly irregular, and highly unethical, IMO.