Too Many Kids
This week brought us much to talk about news wise, but this current news cycle is stuck on the California woman that gave birth to octuplets this week. Initially this news was met with awe and well wishes because all of the preemies seemed to be doing well. However, as more has been discovered about the mother, who wished to remain anonymous, there has been a backlash against this woman and her fertility doctors. Why the disgust, well, it turns out that she is already the mother of six, under the age of 7. Oh, and she's single and lives in a 3-bedroom home with her elderly parents. Which just begs the question, why did she want more children and why did she have to go to the extreme measure of in vitro?
Like a lot of people I felt slightly repulsed with this news. But why are we all so turned off by these revelations? Part of the reason I think is because of our current economic situation. Let's be honest this woman now has 14 children, and because these eight are premature they are going to be in the NICU for a while and we all want to know who is going to pay for this. It smacks of irresponsibility on the mother's part. But then again we don't know the conditions under which she conceived. Maybe she lost her home like so many have, perhaps she had a spouse or partner at the time and they were turned off by the possibility of such a large family. Many men have left over just one, we are a nation raised by single mothers. But really it is also a question of what we as a society think constitutes a family and what that number should be.
When look at the spectacle that is the Duggar family (yes, I said spectacle). They are a couple that does not believe in birth control due to their religion. They just had their 18Th child. Are we as outraged by the Duggars? Well, no. It is like watching a circus but we aren't judging them as harshly as we are judging this woman. Why? First, I think it has to do with the fact they've been around and really they are no longer a surprise. Second, they are not using science to get pregnant they are doing it the old-fashioned way. And from what it seems they are self-sufficient (I'm sure appearing on TLC helps), they are not getting funds from the system.
The fear with the California woman is that we all think that her children are going to be raised off of our tax dollars and not just in the public school systems. The health care cost alone are going to be astronomical.
What I wonder is if we are all just hypocrites. Because if Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt decided to adopt eight children today, we'd all talk about it but we wouldn't be so harsh in our treatment of them. They are people of means and if they can afford to take care of that many then it's great. It should be noted that there are many people that do adopt that many children and have large families and most of us view that as great. Yet voluntarily having that many children seems freakish and morally wrong to many. Just reading the comment board from ABC News' website, you'll see that people have strong feelings about the situation.
Like a lot of people I felt slightly repulsed with this news. But why are we all so turned off by these revelations? Part of the reason I think is because of our current economic situation. Let's be honest this woman now has 14 children, and because these eight are premature they are going to be in the NICU for a while and we all want to know who is going to pay for this. It smacks of irresponsibility on the mother's part. But then again we don't know the conditions under which she conceived. Maybe she lost her home like so many have, perhaps she had a spouse or partner at the time and they were turned off by the possibility of such a large family. Many men have left over just one, we are a nation raised by single mothers. But really it is also a question of what we as a society think constitutes a family and what that number should be.
When look at the spectacle that is the Duggar family (yes, I said spectacle). They are a couple that does not believe in birth control due to their religion. They just had their 18Th child. Are we as outraged by the Duggars? Well, no. It is like watching a circus but we aren't judging them as harshly as we are judging this woman. Why? First, I think it has to do with the fact they've been around and really they are no longer a surprise. Second, they are not using science to get pregnant they are doing it the old-fashioned way. And from what it seems they are self-sufficient (I'm sure appearing on TLC helps), they are not getting funds from the system.
The fear with the California woman is that we all think that her children are going to be raised off of our tax dollars and not just in the public school systems. The health care cost alone are going to be astronomical.
What I wonder is if we are all just hypocrites. Because if Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt decided to adopt eight children today, we'd all talk about it but we wouldn't be so harsh in our treatment of them. They are people of means and if they can afford to take care of that many then it's great. It should be noted that there are many people that do adopt that many children and have large families and most of us view that as great. Yet voluntarily having that many children seems freakish and morally wrong to many. Just reading the comment board from ABC News' website, you'll see that people have strong feelings about the situation.
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