2.12.2009

My Latest Scanner Moment


My head is in real danger of exploding this time. I found this little nugget on AOL this morning.

......A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.

Meanwhile, a Nadya Suleman Family Web Site has been set up to collect donations for the children....

For anyone who has been in space being examined by aliens and somehow missed the story, this is the woman who wasn't satisfied with 6 kids so she had all of her 8 frozen embryos implanted and gave birth (of course) to 8 premature or at least extremely small infants for a grand total of 14 kids.

This case makes me wonder about a number of issues and I admit that I don't have all the facts so I'm asking.

One: Why and how did this woman get hooked up into the extremely expensive realm of fertility clinics? This stuff is extremely expensive and with 6 kids already I have to wonder about the motivation. Are these treatments covered in California? It's not usually considered basic healthcare, that's for sure. Nor should it be when we can't cover basic services such as vaccinations and basic prevention.

Two: Why did the clinic implant them? I know that this is being investigated but I can't for the life of me understand how a doc could do this. Yes I know Mengele was a doc, but I am still shocked when one of my own profession does something like this. Yes, I know that she wanted it done, but a doc is supposed to be the professional with more sense.

Three: Do people have any clue as to the dangers and long term consequences of premature births, which of course would be an expectation with a brood of this size.

Four: Why the rest of us continue to facilitate and pay for the extreme narcissism of others. I don't know what the alternative is but every day seems to bring a more outrageous example of someone else's march to a different drummer costing the rest of us a lot of cash we don't have.

Perhaps I am being too hard on the poor lady, though I have my doubts. If any of you can make sense of this I'd love to hear it. GUT save us all in the meantime.

20 comments:

Asylum Seeker said...

Wow. I haven't heard the details of this story, and I am glad that I haven't, because I am sure that I would've spontaneously combusted with bewilderment/fury/more bewilderment. I don't know why there are people so dead set on giving birth to a massive number of children, financial stability and (especially in this case) health of the children be damned. And the way that she went about doing this is just plain bizarre. I cannot even begin to fathom what was going on, and I am inclined to believe that she should've been obliged to undergo mental health screening before being allowed to this, due entirely to the fact that it makes no f#$%ing sense.

The fact that others will be paying for this, even though this is the result of a willful procedure rather than a random act of nature or what not, is just salt in a wound of pure ineffable insanity. But, I guess that's the world we live in...

Saint Brian the Godless said...

She totally scammed the system.

She's gonna get a book deal out of it.

She's everywhere already.

She's not as stupid as she looks. She took advantage of her only real talent (parturition) and went to stardom with it.

How many of us could say the same?

Pliny, I of course agree with the sentiments expresses. How could she? (Well, I think I just answered that...) And how could the doctor? (He perhaps knew that some associated fame would follow if he produced such a result?)

She's all set for life now, most likely. And it should never have happened.

Richelle said...

seeker, here are as many of the details as i've been able to gather from following this looney toon's story:

-she was married in the 90s but became depressed after getting injured at work and divorced her husband.

-she said she always wanted a big family because she was an only child.

-ALL of her kids are the result of IVF by the same sperm donor, she was already divorced when she started doing this.

-she lives with her mom, is unemployed, and has no means to care for all these children and receives $490 a month in food stamps and $1,900 a month in disability because 3 of the first 6 are disabled.

-the doctor who performed this IVF is under investigation.

frankly, i think this woman is selfish and needs to have her head examined.

mac said...

One word:

Fucking incredible !




OK, two words ;-)

Anonymous said...

She also looks as though she has had some recent plastic surgery --- I know this is a shallow comment but WTF??

Things are wrong here, how did she afford it?

Pliny-the-in-Between said...

She also looks as though she has had some recent plastic surgery --- I know this is a shallow comment but WTF??
-----
I thought that too - that sort of punched and burned collagen injection to the lips look.

Asylum Seeker said...

"she said she always wanted a big family because she was an only child."

She took that a bit far...

"ALL of her kids are the result of IVF by the same sperm donor, she was already divorced when she started doing this."

.......I think I was a bit premature when saying that I averted spontaneous combustion....

"she lives with her mom, is unemployed, and has no means to care for all these children and receives $490 a month in food stamps and $1,900 a month in disability because 3 of the first 6 are disabled."

Honestly, WTF is wrong with people!? What she is doing should seriously count as child endangerment or something. It isn't illegal, but it is reckless as hell.

She not only needs to "get her head examined", she should probably institutionalized so that she can't continue to do this crap, and bring broods of children into such an unstable position through such elaborate, deliberate methods.

Pliny-the-in-Between said...

I still wonder how she afforded in vitro? These treatments typically cost thousands of dollars. Does California Medicaid cover it? In this instance I would have thought capitalism would have prevented this from ever happening.

Anonymous said...

Just for you Pliny - but sit down first and take an aspirin.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/medicine/la-me-octuplets13-2009feb13,0,457763.story

Kodiak said...

Ok, I'll probably get clobbered for this, but here goes....
The woman paid for her in-vitro treatments from a disability settlement she received for an injury she sustained during a riot at a mental institution where she works.
Can she afford all these kids? Probably not. She will probably continue to need some sort of assistance. But this is nothing new...it is just something new with one person all at the same time. Doctors work hard every day, in every city in this country helping women get pregnant who can't afford their kids.
Three little words. Life. Isn't. Fair. Sometimes, the people who would be the best parents are the people who can least afford children. I've known quite a few wealthy parents who absolutely suck donkey balls at it. And some of the best parents I ever met were ignorant backwoods Georgia hicks who had had refrigerators on their front porch.
100 years ago people had craploads of kids, and you couldn't count on all of 'em dying. My boyfriend's aunt had 22 children, and was a great, albeit poor, parent. I knew quite a few people in the south who grew up dirt poor, were successful later in life, and still remember their childhoods as the best time of their lives.
Yes, people who can't afford their kids are gonna cost me money. Big whoop. People who are awarded no-bid government contracts to fund useless wars in order to line their pockets are costing me about 100 times as much. (Remember, I am an accountant. I know where my tax dollar goes. And it ain't goin' to the poor schmucks on Welfare).
I have no idea why anyone would want 14 kids. I only had three and there were plenty of days they drove me berserk (And they are worse when they are grown. When they are 3 they "borrow" your lipstick and write on the walls. When they are 23, they "borrow" your car and do a Jack Kerouac impersonation.)
Do I think this was a wise thing for this woman to do? No, of course not. But people do far, far worse things that cost me far more money every day.
I'm going to go on a tangent now...why is everyone so incredibly pissed at this woman, and yet they forget shit like Ken Lay, and Cheney and Haliburton, and Madoff...etc, etc...? I have a couple of theories. First, because understanding corporate finance is "too hard" for most people...they are vaguely aware that these people did something wrong, and that it might cost them money...but they really don't understand it. But foodstamps? Oh, shit yeah...that's EASY to understand. Baaaad people get foodstamps. Baaaad, Laaaaazy people.
Which brings me to the second point. The "Jimmy has a bigger slice of cake than me" syndrome. While we can't comprehend the magnitude of trillions of dollars flushed down the shitter, we DO understand when someone gets a few bucks off their groceries that we didn't get. That is because it is right in front of us, and happening at a level we can comprehend. At some level we KNOW that nothing we ever say or do will affect the Ken Lay's of the world. But we CAN make the pathetic welfare mom feel that a piece of crap for the 3 or 4 dollars that come out of my yearly tax payment for her.
The honest truth is that most of us spend more at Starbucks in a week that we spend on all the non-SS based social programs combined. But the media loves to play up stories like 8 is enough lady, because it takes our attention away from what the magician is REALLY doing. Hocus Pocus, forget that the US is doomed due to its own lack of vision...concentrate instead on this shiny bait we are dangling.

Pliny-the-in-Between said...

KodiaK - you won't get bashed. I think almost all of us would agree that Ken Lay, Cheney, et. al. should have been run out of town and strait into jail. Your points are good ones - which is why I'm drafting a post about my take on the big lie and why it sells better than the little ones.

Richelle said...

kodiak,

don't get me wrong, i am pissed at cheney and all these corporate assholes we've been seeing so much of on tv lately. i haven't forgotten about all of them by a long shot.

it's safe to say that i am pissed off at most of humanity in general. so many people out there are selfish, greedy, heartless bastards and it almost makes me ashamed to be human.

i know that not all people who are on food stamps are lazy and worthless. i'd probably know that better than anyone else who posts on pliny and brian and seeker's blogs because i used to be on food stamps, and child care assistance, and housing assistance, and title 19.

i think that's part of why i'm so angry about women like this. these people who just pop out kids like rabbits who have no means of providing for them made it harder for me to get government assistance because i only had one child and i was going to school full time.

for example: single parents who need child care assistance in colorado can't receive it for the hours they are taking college classes. because the program is so strapped for cash they only assist people for the time they are working. so anyone who wants to better themselves by going to college is pretty much screwed. they end up having to choose between working a minimum wage job that will keep them on public assistance for the rest of their lives or not working at all and having more kids to get more welfare.

some cities have waiting lists for public housing that are over a year long, some cities have stopped taking names for public housing because there is no end even in sight.

it becomes a vicious cycle which is perpetuated by women like the octuplet mom.

and that's why she pisses me off.

pboyfloyd said...

I don't know what to say except, "Sarah Palin ought to be giving us some sage advice on how to think about this RIDICULOUS unfolding scenario!"

I'd be at a loss for what to do with eight puppies. Would I be able to 'find homes' for them all?

GearHedEd said...

Pliny said,

"...every day seems to bring a more outrageous example of someone else's march to a different drummer costing the rest of us a lot of cash we don't have."

And here's the down-side of liberalism and diversity, folks.

Pliny-the-in-Between said...

And here's the down-side of liberalism and diversity, folks.

------

Judging by the way that that neocons have behaved over the last decade, I don't think that liberals have a monopoly on narcissism.

GearHedEd said...

Nadya Suleman is a neocon? I must've missed that part...

GearHedEd said...

Just kidding, Pliny...

Greed is blind to politics.

Pliny-the-in-Between said...

unfortunately quite true Ed

GearHedEd said...

Richelle said,

"...i know that not all people who are on food stamps are lazy and worthless."

I know it, too. My family was on welfare throughout most of the '70's. My mom had to go back to college in her 40's because the "Leave it to Beaver" family model doesn't work when Dad's an abusive alcoholic.

GearHedEd said...

But at least my mom didn't play yhe system; she got us all OFF welfare at the first opportunity.