I intend to discuss my thoughts
on the American pop culture obsession with celebrity pregnancies at another time. But consider this post the first installment
of a three-part series I like to think of as “Cheapening the Miracle of Life –
What Are We Becoming?”
I was disgusted, as I’m sure many
Americans were, when I first heard about the now infamous Nadya “Octomom”
Suleman giving birth to eight babies…using in vitro fertilization…after already
having six children. Where do you even
begin?
This scenario conjures up, among
other things, questions on the ethics of fertility treatment – who is this
genius doctor who allowed her to a) go through with in vitro despite already
having what most people consider a large family, and b) implanting so many eggs
(he implanted 12, folks)? Talk about giving a bad name to in vitro and
to the millions of doctors who genuinely help childless couples. It also makes
you wonder what Suleman’s true motives were here…she was in debt – did she
think the notoriety she gained would secure her financial situation so she
could take care of her family, or was she simply greedy and fame-hungry?
Perhaps she has a mental illness – can one be addicted to having children (a
word about ___ Kids and Counting in
another post)?
These questions can go on and on,
but underlying them all I can’t help think that Suleman’s situation is, more
than anything, a slap in the face to the millions of women facing infertility
who ask nothing more than the tiniest bit of luck in conceiving and giving
birth to one miracle child.
Also, that bitterness I talked
about in my last post? Here’s what I
mean. In a 2011 interview with In Touch (and captured on audio tape, no
less), Suleman stated, “I hate babies, they disgust me…Obviously, I love them –
but I absolutely wish I had not had them.” Now, take the source material for
what you will, and who knows what the full context is here, but if this is a
true sentiment…holy hell, let me adopt a couple of her poor children.
And now, in other news, three
years down the road and after learning Suleman accepts public assistance for
her family of 14, is about $1 million in debt, has already posed topless and
touted animal spaying and neutering (the very definition of irony) for money,
we hear the latest coming from the Octomom: she’s filing for bankruptcy and is
“not opposed” to appearing in an adult film.
But only if there’s no touching involved. Given her previous experience, maybe she
thinks she’ll get pregnant again.
Also, just a side note – she was
unemployed and living with her mother, already in debt, when she started this
last round of IVF treatment. Who paid
for this? My husband and I have emptied our savings accounts and lived
considerably scaled-back lives just to afford the first round of our treatment,
which is about half the cost of IVF, by the way. And now we’re saving up for the second-coming
of the Great Savings Account Drain because our insurance will not pay a dime of
our fertility treatment.
It really
boggles the mind. One of the strongest feelings
we have experienced as a couple dealing with infertility is the overwhelming
sense of unfairness. How can someone dubbed “Octomom” be given the gift of
parenthood when we, who genuinely have the tools and the drive to provide a
healthy and wholesome home to a child, have been denied this? This may be an
extreme example, but it is an example of the ever-present reminder from the
American pop culture machine of this injustice.
And to
top it all off, Suleman is a media outlet’s dream come true – maybe not celebrated,
per se, but certainly, infamously, a curiosity that feeds off its own quest to
extend those precious 15 minutes. So the
more attention she craves, the more she slides from her previously stated moral
convictions (won’t take public assistance, won’t do porn), the more the media
eats it all up and gives her that notoriety, essentially validating her
actions. And we’re not just talking
about TMZ.com here – first news article to pop up after a Google search of
“octomom”? Forbes magazine. Sigh…
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