Why Octomom Matters

I know there are some people out there who think that the coverage of the California octuplets has been excessive, sensationalistic and irrelevant to today’s problems. Wrong. Let me count the ways.

Nadya Suleman’s fecundity and resulting spawn could not have come at a worst time for her as far as endorsements, deals or even the typical corporate freebies lavished on multi-birth parents are concerned.

No corporation wants to give this woman a free ride while laying their own people off. And I venture to guess that if you’re sitting in a house that’s about to be foreclosed, or you’re barely able to make the mortgage payments, or you’ve lost or are about to lose your job, or if your health insurance has been yanked you’re probably not reveling in Octomom’s joy. If you’re a taxpayer in the state of California, thanks for picking up the tab for Suleman’s “obsession” with children. I’m sure you’re happy to help, what with all the spare cash you probably have lying around.

Last night I went to buy a Valentine’s Day gift at a popular shopping mall outside Washington, D.C. When I arrived at around 7 p.m., the parking lot was practically empty. The stores were deserted. People are too frightened to spend money on themselves. So now is not the time to assume that your self-indulgence will be subsidized. Those of us who are expected to pay up just aren’t in the mood.

If you’re a right-to-lifer, what do you have to say for yourself? Have you opened up your checkbook to help care for these children? Or does her single mother status turn you off? How do you square that circle?

If you’re a couple desperately seeking medical help to have a child, what to make of the doctor who implanted Suleman’s embryos, who appears to be a conman, fraud and crook, whose chief success was with one client – Suleman?

How about following the money? Why is it that Suleman had cash for IVF treatment and what appears to be extensive plastic surgery, but not to pay her mother for food or rent for the children? Why did Suleman lie about receiving public assistance? And why oh why did she continue to pump out children when half the ones she’d already had are disabled?

Will the fact that her food stamp payments totaled a whopping $490 per month finally put to rest the absurd notion that single mothers have more babies to live high on the welfare hog?

It’s no secret that there are many, many unethical, sleazy doctors in Beverly Hills, from the garden variety Dr. Feelgoods with their prescription pads at the ready to plastic surgeons who will accomodate any outrageous demand, even when the results are pretty damn scary. Is it safe to assume that given the fertility doctor’s lousy track record he implanted Suleman’s embryos in order to get more publicity for his ineffectual clinic? Is it ethical for a doctor to “just keep going” when he’s familiar with his patient’s medical history and knows that his patient is indigent and trying to raise three disabled children?

And finally, when will the media learn to stop treating multiple births as a reason to celebrate?

The bottom line is that there are now 14 children who are at the mercy of a woman who appears to be mentally imbalanced, whose sense of entitlement has cost the taxpayers plenty at a time when too many of us are feeling the sharp pinch of unemployment, bankruptcy and foreclosure.

Anyone who’s adopted a dog or cat from the local shelter can tell you that you can’t take your pet home until your home has been inspected. Are we to believe that 14 innocent children deserve any less?

UPDATE: Suleman continues to deny she’s on welfare despite evidence to the contrary, and:

She said she has no income but would go back to school and use student loans to help support her 14 children. She said she now has an “alternative source of income” that would probably run out before she returns to school.

“So I have my own way, an alternative way, but it works,” she said…

She said she has spent close to $100,000 in in vitro procedures at West Coast IVF Clinic in Beverly Hills, run by Dr. Michael Kamrava.

All the lies are making me dizzy.