This story was on Dr. Phil today. I didn't watch the show in it's entirety (beautiful afternoon so we were outside!) but there is already some discussion of whether or not this woman is going to be able to keep these children without CPS stepping in.
If I heard it correctly, three of her previous children have ADHD and/or Autism and receive disability checks already. She herself received 160K after a work place accident several years ago.
The whole situation is sickening to me personally. I had to wait an entire decade after marriage to have children--why? Because we couldn't afford them before then! I am so sad to even begin to consider these children were brought into the world at an attempt to collect more money but it certainly is looking that way.
ETA: AMA needs to cut off this dr.'s ying-yang! How dare he! Better yet, the doctor himself should be making child support checks to the kids!
Last edited by Thighs Be Gone; 02-12-2009 at 05:51 PM.
I feel badly for everyone in this situation...the kids particularly, but also for Ms. Suleman (who is, in my opinion, clearly mentally ill...now word is leaking that she has written Angelina Jolie several times over the past year about her efforts with children, and photos have surfaced of her in earlier years that sure to look like she had some plastic surgery to look more Angelina-like), her parents, and CA taxpayers. The only person I don't feel sorry for here is the doctor, who should never have done the procedure.
I think laws should be put in place about the number of embryos implanted at once. Nothing about total numbers of children, nothing restricting childbearing based on income, just laws that reflect what most fertility docs say is ethical treatment at this point. If the standard of care for infertility calls for more embryos to be implanted in certain circumstances, that should be an exception. And the doctor should be sanctioned for violating that standard of care so clearly in Suleman's case.
its not the doctors fault its hers for agreeing to have all the embryos implanted. if the goverment stopped rewarding these women for having babies maybe it would stop. i do feel sorry for the children, not the mother it was her choice
I read elsewhere that she got plastic surgery on her face to look more like angelina jolie. So its not just collagen in lips.
Good heavens. You are kidding! WTH is this chick on the dole of the fed. govt. if she can do plastic surgery? It makes me so angry when I read these things!
It ranks right on up there with our neighbors that have memberships at the country club and drive a luxury SUV but have each filed bankruptcy recently. We just don't understand it.
its not the doctors fault its hers for agreeing to have all the embryos implanted. if the goverment stopped rewarding these women for having babies maybe it would stop. i do feel sorry for the children, not the mother it was her choice
There are ethical guidelines, not laws but guidelines for doctors who do IVF. From what I've read, apparently the guidelines are no more than 2 embryos are to be implanted in a woman under the age of 35. He did it not once, but twice I believe as one of her other pregnancy was triplets?
So he didn't follow the guidelines set for IVF doctors and really he should be held accountable.
its not the doctors fault its hers for agreeing to have all the embryos implanted. if the goverment stopped rewarding these women for having babies maybe it would stop. i do feel sorry for the children, not the mother it was her choice
I'm more cynical, as I don't thing the rewards for 14 children (especially 8 at one time) are reward enough for any sane individual to do so. This woman risked her life to have these 8 kids, so I don't think it was just money motivating her - I think it was much more complicated. I'm doubting that money is the primary motivator here as no insurance that I know of would have paid for her previous procedures - and she has (at least until now) spent more on living her fantasies than she has received in payment (she would have been better off financially to have kept the 165K in the original settlement and to have kept her original face).
Now her fantasies may be complex, but I don't think money was the main issue. I'm wondering if she idolizes Angelina Jolie so much that she has visions of motherhood bringing her love and attention (not only from the children, but from the nation or the world), perhaps even fame (and a little notoriety) like her idol. I don't think the government's assistance has much at all to do with this particular case. In fact, if she were only on government assistance, she would not have been able to afford the procedure. It was only that 165K sitting in the bank that allowed her the medical procedures of her choice.
I'd be creeped out if I was Angelina,that is not the message she's trying to get across with all her kids. Angelina should meet this woman and tell her she's lost her mind because this woman has serious issues, I do feel bad for those kids, they didn't ask for this.
If she's mentally ill, I doubt that a meeting with Angelina would help, and could even possible make things worse (if she drew the actual attention of the object of her fascination with her behavior). When folks are obsessed with celebs, it's not the reality of the celeb, but their fantasy of the celeb that drives their behavior.
I just don't think this is a case in which reality can match the fantasy that she has admitted she is trying to make real. Any fantasy of having 14 children is going to be very much unlike the reality, and if the reality hasn't already convinced her that she needs counseling, I rather doubt that Angelina herself would be able to.
The saddest fact is that even if she realizes it now, and seeks treatment it doesn't erase the fact that 14 children in this world are forever going to be impacted by her decision.
the big difference is angelina can support her kids, this lady is just gaurenteed her income for 18 more years, big govt check, free medical, free food.. all at the tax payers expense
I wouldn't say she is necessarily trying to look like Angelina Jolie. But she HAS obviously had surgery. They showed pictures of her several times in her interview and she looks nothing like the way she used to look a few years ago. She was soooo adorable! She did not need any work at all.
Now, I have no problem with people having a lot of children. I have many friends with 6+ kids. One of them is even a single mom but she does not get any government assistance (she should be getting child support but you know how that goes). If you can take care of 14 children financial, then have at it! But she cannot and she knew that in the first place. The way she went about the IVF was ridiculous. She shouldn't have had so many embryos. I understand not wanting to get rid of them but she knew that ahead of time. She knew her personal convictions would never allow her to get rid of them so she put herself in this position on purpose!!
I would not want to be one of these kids as an adult. Who knows what kind of hang ups they will have. Mind you we all do have hang ups. But we can go to a job interview and not have any curiousity about us except to see if we can do the job. Or have entertainment tonight updates on us. Or National Enquire pics on every screw up we make. Hmm sounds like being a celebrity already eh?
junebug41 I know...I want to have children as well. We are going to wait until we get married (in November!), I am healthier, and we can afford it. I'll have insurance in about 2 months thanks to my new job. But it's just plain BS with her! People are seriously angry with this woman.
MindiV I wouldn't doubt it. She's all over the t.v just like she wanted, but she isn't getting the best feedback. Kate on J&K+8 had her children on accident and she just had 6. She said she was considered a "fertility nightmare". One time they received on e-mail on *how* to have sextuplets. Maybe it was Nadya?
The board of health said that for a woman her age, she shouldn't of had no more then 2 eggs implanted. They are going to investigate the doctor that did it. GOOD! He was her doctor for the other 6 kids. Is he crazy?
She wants donations...Yet, aren't tax-payers paying for her welfare?
They are going to investigate the doctor that did it. GOOD! He was her doctor for the other 6 kids. Is he crazy?
I saw an interview with the mother somewhere online and her mother said that she and her husband begged the doctor not to do it (the one that planted the first six kids) and the doctor told Nadya he couldn't do it.
So Nadya went behind her mothers back and found another doctor much to the shock and anger of her mother.
Also I read that the 165K that she recieved was in monthly installments over a perioid of 10 years until they found out she was milking the system and then her disability payments stopped last year. They probably firgured that she COULDN'T be THAT disabled if she had 6 kids!
So 165K spread out over 10 years is not much money ($1,000.00 a month) but they say she still used part of her disabilty check to pay for her IVF and cosmetic surgery (duck lips and nose job).
When confronted the the fact that it has been confirmed that she IS recieving food stamps for her kids and going on nationwide TV and dening that she was she simply said that she didn't consider food stamps welfare.
The more I read about the mother the more I feel sorry for the kids. I mean what kind of life are they going to have? really?
And if Social Services DOES come after her kids I could see her being mentally ill enough to do a Susan Smith on her kids! But I SURE hope not!
outside!) but there is already some discussion of whether or not this woman is going to be able to keep these children without CPS stepping in. 
