I find it odd that women's reproductive rights, although heavily challanged in the past, now seem to exist in an untouchable bubble. We can do whatever we want with our bodies despite risks to the unborn children and society as a whole. Why is it not okay for gay people to get married but it's fine for a single unemployed mother with 6 children to have a risky in-vitro procedure? It seems our "family values" are a bit misplaced.

My question is not the number of children a person has. But rather, can the person support the children without any aid from the state? I am all for being who you are no matter if you are gay or straight, if you can afford to supply a child with his/her basic needs and can give the child all the love he deserves then go for it. You can have 100 kids if you can support them. But to lie and say that you have not been using welfare only to find out that you have been accepting food stamps seems to me to be the wrong way to raise your children.

Right on Susan! This mother, prior to the latest invitro fertilization, should have been stopped for her own good as well as the good of her first 6 children. In my opinion the enablers should be held extremely cupable. The invitro clinic should be closed down or at the very least fined heavily. Responsible people in a position of power must be held to a higher standard than the less than knowledgeable,in this case the mother. In retrospect, that dosen't seem to be the american way. Look at our government!

sigh
Doctors can't implant embryos. They transfer them. Implantation is what happens if an embryo burrows into the endometrium lining in the uterus. Most embryos don't do this but die and are washed out with the next menstrual cycle without the mother ever suspecting she had an embryo in her.

All of us were born from 'implanted embryos.' There's no scandal there.

Please, please use the correct terminology.

Thank you so much for taking the criticism seriously. It seems that since the popular press has gotten interested in reporting on the highly unusual case of the octuplets, more journalists are using the incorrect term 'implant' than the correct term 'transfer,' leading to terrible misconceptions in the general (read fertile) public.

I had 18 embryos transferred over an 8-year period before one implanted and am currently expecting my first child.

By the way, I strongly agree with you that embryo donation is an amazing opportunity for parents who have already built their families to give their leftover embryos a chance at life and for infertile people to experience having a family of their own. I hope more people will consider donating embryos in future. (Unfortunately, the octomom had never heard of it. Her mother suggested it to her and she reacted with horror and said 'Who would do that?')

All the best and thanks again.