Octuplets' birth raises bioethical questions

Feb 04, 2009 By Delthia Ricks, Newsday


Six boys and two girls, delivered eight weeks prematurely last week, have become the world's longest surviving octuplets. All are still in a neonatal intensive care unit at a Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center near Los Angeles. A hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday all eight are doing well.

Yet the infants, who weigh between 1 pound 8 ounces, and 3 pounds 4 ounces, have stirred an ethical debate among practitioners and the public about family planning and test-tube fertilization. Questions about why Nadya Suleman, 33, chose reproductive technology "will be answered in due time," said her spokesman, Michael Furtney.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine notes that guidelines underlie the use of reproductive technologies. And specialists in the field say they've worked for decades to refine the science behind in vitro fertilization and other assisted techniques.

"Would we ever implant eight embryos? The answer is no," said Dr. Avner Hershlag, of North Shore University Hospital's Center for Human Reproduction in Manhasset, N.Y.

The number of embryos implanted is based on a woman's age and fertility. The younger the patient, Hershlag said, especially those under 35, the fewer fertilized eggs are placed in the uterus. Hershlag said there can be a tug-of-war between doctors and patients over the number of embryos to be implanted. Some patients undergoing fertility therapy want more, especially if infertility has persisted for years.

Doctors argue for fewer, in part because there is a possibility a single egg could split into two after implantation, producing twins. Four splitting into eight would be highly unlikely.

Suleman's mother last week told reporters that doctors implanted far fewer than eight embryos, but they multiplied.

In Suleman's case, it was unclear whether she had IVF at all, added Hershlag. In some fertility treatments, drugs are used to stimulate the ovaries to release a profusion of eggs, "as opposed to the egg of the month," he said. When a multitude of eggs are present, anyone inseminated at that time increases the likelihood of so-called high-order multiples: quadruplets, or more.

Experts say doctors practicing reproductive medicine abide by written standards. "We have clinical practice guidelines that restrict the number of embryos that can be transferred in an IVF cycle. This is to avoid multiple births," said Sean Tipton, spokesman for the reproductive medicine society.

Dr. Shari Brasner, a specialist in Manhattan, said avoiding multiples helps prevent ongoing health problems. "The main goal is trying to prevent higher order multiples because prematurity is still one of the biggest issues we have in medicine. And the cost of a premature baby is incredible."

Furtney said there's no truth to reports Suleman openly sought cash, book contracts and free services. He declined to say why she chose to have so many babies _ she already has six children aged between 2 and 7. All were born via IVF and there is one set of twins. "She's really not yet at a point to discuss that level of detail. But I think within a reasonable amount of time, she will be," he said.


(c) 2009, Newsday.
Visit Newsday online at www.newsday.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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not rated yet Feb 17, 2009
Were these babies exploited, as premature infants, for their stem cells, and their blood types?

There must be a criminal investigation and on the three children who are known disadvantaged, on boy with autism. Were all her babies exploited for stem cell collection, whether the mother knows his or not, or the sperm donor?

There are more concerns, as follows:

1. I believe it is time for a criminal investigation that the mother is an accomplice to exploit her children for financial gain. I believe this woman is not fit to raise the 14 children. She is using going to school to avoid her responsibilities, putting them on her aging mother and father, and to a Christian Church. She has an autistic child, and two other children deemed, also disadvantaged.
2. We must raise the question where did all of her artificially conceived children's placentas go, filled with blood that has stem cells in the whole blood?
3. Are any of her children yet to be found anemic, and since birth?
4. The placentas are all harvested by trapping the blood in the placenta by early umbilical cord clamping.
5. ACOG, in the USA; SOGC, in Canada; WHO, an international organization; and FIGO, also international, are those responsible for the false teachings of imposing early umbilical cord clamping. They are calling, falsely, the placenta blood waste blood. They then allow each hospital, world wide, or midwives in home births, to take the placenta and its contents, to be used for other's need of blood, any portion of it. These persons often receive collection fees for syringing out or draining out the engorged placenta.
6. Any engorged placenta after early umbilical cord clamping is a medically caused unnatural state. The placenta should be a flat organ, after the placenta blood has been infused into the child%u2019s expanding lungs.
7. The lungs take a lot of blood. The placenta blood is not extra or a waste residual that some doctors attempt to tell the expecting mothers. They attempt to conceal the hospitals seek the placenta blood for practical use.
8. The local hospitals are part of concealing how much blood was deprived the infant or infants.
9. The hospitals have private or public labs that practically have created their own policies how they may use human blood once it is in their possession. They may practically sell it or waste it or burn it.
10. The local hospitals do not, to my knowledge, document on the child%u2019s own medical chart, how much blood was drained from their placenta, or a shared placenta, if it was a multiple birth.
11. The information on these 8-babies has not been fully shared to the public at large on taking of their blood in the placenta and/or in the cord. Why not?
12. It is a crime, for children are selected for early cord clamping: For example, the premature children are alleged to have the most stem cells that can be extracted from the whole blood. We must ask, why was this mother being selected to have so many babies.
13. We must ask, Were all her children by c-section?
14. We must ask, Were all her children premature children?
15. If so, there may be a pattern that this mother was allowed to have more than one child, conceived artificially, as to what her baby's blood, might be, and was it sought to be sold?
16. Both the mothers and the father's blood, may give a special type of blood sought by the blood banks, called cord blood banks. It may fetch to those that receive the placenta and the blood a high dollar value, and the faster the umbilical cords are clamped, the more is the take of the special blood. It can create funds higher then the c-section delivery fees. Doctors who sell blood know its value and their connections to the private blood banks, world wide.
17. Few persons know that very little stem cells are taken from the whole blood, but once the stem cells are in the possession of a private or public lab, they may be then resold for the going market rate of more or less a fee of $30,000.00 USA funds. Each baby may be deprived up to 50 to 60% total blood volume. (Ref.: Lippincott Manual of Nursing Practice,2000, 7th edition, page 1161)
18. The rest of the components of blood are individually sold, too. White cells, that fight infection; mature red cells that carry oxygen and carry away carbon dioxide; and the immature red cells, yet with the nucleus in them; and the platelets that clot the blood, and the fluid of the blood, plasma.
19. Then there are special proteins that cannot be man-made, as yet: interferon, growth hormones, hormones, per the sex of the child, and enzymes. All such special proteins and special chemicals, and enzymes, as a team, all help the cells to function quicker, or easier, in taking in nutrients, and releasing waste products.
20. Criminal Endangering: A special investigation must be petitioned for. It is the duty for the Children and Families to stop the mother from exploiting the babies further, or the family, or even the Christian Church.
21. The Innocent: In nations that are not democracy, they allow the innocent, the babies to live, but the mother, may be killed if she, knowingly put the fetus to risk.
22. Those that may exploit these babies do not deserve a dime from the Tax basis, but the 8 children are the innocent victims, they must be cared for, even if that means temporary separation for their own individual needs to be met, properly, ethically, and morally.
23. To keep this family together, 14 is a burden to the city where they will dwell. These children are now already a burden to the society on taxes. And to not have a criminal investigation is encouraging others to be irresponsible in their decision making powers. Their excuse is we do not create more sawdust, we look after the innocent, is not acting for prevention in the future of copycats.
24. An investigation on the ethics, morals, and competence of the corporation that allowed this conception, planted right inside her womb, so they would likely develop, 6 babies, that may split into identical twins was a known risk by that corporation.
25. The corporation had a moral duty to know the history of the paying patient. They ought to have known the background of the father, the sperm donor, and the mother. They have case histories, and likely knew the three disadvantaged children of the already 6 children in existence, and their cost to society of an irresponsible women, and her donor spouse. That male must be held financially accountable, for what part of his actions was also paid for, and by his blood type.
26. Was blood type a factor, so many babies taken prematurely?
27. Something must be done and seen to be done and include a criminal negligence investigation.
28. Are there any grounds of criminal endangering, to the mother of these babies, as well as to each child, to live in a body, now destroyed. We have no cures for autism, once the brain is damaged. WE have not cures for Cerebral palsy, once the brain stem and the central nervous system have been damaged, however, the babies are born. We can't give back the baby's blood, once it was clamped off, without the risk of the whole blood or part of the blood, plasma, now being contaminated by that severance of the cord from the owner/infant.
29. I would like to see a public inquiry, how these multiple births happened to a women with six children, and 3 of them disadvantaged. Just who all ought to be in a criminal court, to pay a fine, and look after these babies?

30. This is the crime of the century, so far. What will their annual cost to society be? It is now estimated to be over $100,000.00 per child. Being premature, they are already deemed to have learning and mental disadvantages, or will soon be part of development disorders. All the babies were likely chosen to be hasty early umbilical cord clamped. It is a common factor of such institutional births that the baby%u2019s placenta blood, like most hospitals allow, will have disappeared. It will not be part of the infant%u2019s charted medical records. The facts where there palcenta blood went and how much of it was sold for concealed institutional profits in selling human blood for stem cells and other components of blood is intentionally concealed by policy of that institution. Check it out.
31. In my opinion, what happened to these children, and the allowance of it, is a crime.
32. If this is deemed a medical collusion of a conspiracy of silence, then it is a crime not only to these 8 children but to other children born on Planet Earth.
33. The crime of seeeking the infant%u2019s palcenta blood, drained through the umbilical cord, then called cord blood, is going on world wide. It is a very, very organized practice developed by policies by the powers that be, and so named.
34. Will others in society also see the exploitation of the fetuses, now a citizens of the USA, as a crime?
35. Will this situation open up the need of a criminal investigation, and the corporations fined?
36. I hope so.
37. Which Senator or which elected District Attorney%u2019s office will start the criminal investigations?

Contact: dyoung@pris.ca
ACOG The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
SOGC The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (Policy #89 May 2000)
FIGO ??? The Internation Federation of Gneycologists and Obstetricians
WHO The World Health Organization (See 1998 issues on birth and umbilical cord clamping and the use of oxytocin drugs)
Petition: www.thepetitionsi...02580814
Other urls:
www.medicalveritas.com (See 21 frequently asked questions; see how to have a healthy baby and birth, free articles)
Autism Groups. Contact any organized autisim group and find how the control of these private groups, none-profit, conceal or prevent asking this one question: %u201CWhen was the child%u2019s umbilical cord hand-squeezed off; clamped, or tied off?%u201D They do not want a common factor of all autistic children to be known. They are exploiting the society for gaining more and more children to have their parents a member of this group, when prevention is not their common goal. What child would choose to be autistic to then seek a cure when prevention was a duty owed.


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