Over the Coals

She's baaaack.

In this interview, Ann Curry rakes Nadya Suleman over the coals about irresponsibility and selfishness. It is fascinating to listen to Suleman's rationale in explaining how she is not irresponsible and selfish.

Suleman states she currently has no income coming in (except for her children's disability payments and food stamps). She was using student loans to support her family, but at this point that source of money has dried up (incidentally, aren't there any rules regulating the use of student loans for purposes other than school?). At the same time, she explains that she is responsible because she will be able to support her children once she is finished school in a year or so.

Question #1: how does she expect to pay for her final year of graduate school when she's used up her student loans to support her family?

Question #2: If she has no source of income right now, how will she support her family while she is finishing up her graduate degree and then trying to find a job?

I guess that's where the media comes in - the book deals, the magazine deals, the interview deals, the reality show, the Lifetime Movie of the Week. Face it, you know they are coming. In fact, just this week it was reported that she's been offered a cool million to star in (of all things) a porn film. Let's also not forget her Beg-a-Thon website with PayPal functionality as well. Oh, and her poor friends, family and church members who have to step up to the plate to support her egregious lifestyle.

And this, above all, is what enfuriates me - that obscene selfishness and irresponsibility gets rewarded in our culture; that when all is said and done, it's all about MONEY (and ratings); that people who live responsibly and within their means have to work their asses off for every dollar they get, while narcissistic, self-absorbed nutcases like Nadya Suleman get everything handed to them on a silver platter.

Seeing Red

If you watched the video in my previous post, you heard Dr. Jamie Grifo state that "you cannot legislate the practice of medicine", i.e. you cannot force doctors to limit the number of embryos they implant in a woman. Although most doctors follow the guidelines recommended - limiting the embroys implanted to one or two - he states that there are no laws limiting them if they choose to implant more. In other words, these doctors who implant 8 embryos in one woman are free to run wild and do as they wish, because "we do not want to infringe on a woman's reproductive rights".

And yet at the same time, many women and men who do not wish to have children are turned away by doctors who refuse to sterilize them because they have not already had children. What about these individuals' reproductive rights? Why is nobody concerned about their reproductive wishes being granted? Why is it that when a person chooses not to have children, her wishes are ignored because it is assumed she must not know her mind, yet the wishes of a woman who is clearly an insane, selfish narcissist - who has 6 children already and wants to add 8 more to the brood when she is single and lives alone with her parents who are going bankrupt - are granted with no questions asked?!! Nobody is questioning her wishes or doubting whether she knows her mind. This is what truly burns me up and makes me see red!

As if this is not all enough, one of the doctors interviewed on the video stated that the health care for these 8 babies will run into the MILLIONS of dollars and guess who will have to pay for it? Us! These women and doctors can do whatever they please with impunity and we just have to deal with it and foot the bill! Nobody questions a woman who wants to be implanted with 8 embryos about the fact that she has 6 kids already. Nobody questions her about whether she has the financial means to pay for their medical care. Nobody questions the negative impact on the health of the woman or the children. Nobody questions her about how she will possibly be able to care for and financially support 14 children. None of this is a concern to anyone because "we cannot legislate medicine". Are you fucking kidding me?

This case illustrates more clearly than anything, the rampant pronatalism that is has our society in a death grip. It is disgraceful and beyond all reason and comprehension. Breeding is encouraged for everyone, under all circumstances and without question because babies are "miracles" and the more miracles we can create, the better off we all are, even if this flies in the face of reality, as in this situation. It is as though our entire society is a culture of catatonic, unthinking Stepford Wives.

The doctors who implanted those 8 embryos should be thrown in prison, as should the mom. In fact, put them all in the same jail cell together and make it a really small jail cell so they can experience the same overcrowding that those 14 children will feel when they are jammed into that tiny bungalow like a bunch of sardines. And turn the 14 children over to adoptive parents who are responsible and have the financial and psychological means to raise them properly.