Friday, February 6, 2009

IVF

I watched a short part of the interview the Today show did with the mom of the Octuplets this morning. Very strange woman, and it makes me wonder about the morality of a few things that went on with this whole deal.
Let me start off by saying, I'm a single woman, and I have no plans on entering a relationship again. At some point I would like the kid to have a younger siblings, so I have played around with the idea of IVF to have another child. Much like this woman in CA I am essentially selfish and would use this to my own ends, as opposed to just finding a guy to knock me up.
So, assuming I find a fertility DR who would perform IVF on a fertile single woman? What would this DR say when I explained to him that the only reason why I wanted this proceedure was because I didn't want to find a guy but still wanted another kid? A bit selfish, no?
IVF is expensive, and it's meant for infertile couples, should I get it? Should I even ask for it? Should a DR give it to me? I mean, really teh answer is no, let it be reserved for women who can't get preggers, noyt women like me, and not women like this woman in CA.
All that aside, this DR of hers implanted 8 embryos. 8! In a healthy young woman, and he must have known there was a chance all 8 would live. That's so dangerous it boggles the mind. Even in older infertile women it seems that the standard is implant 4, and hope that 1 or 2 make it. There was no reason I can see to implant 8. And the fact that this DR did implant so many embryos into a young woman who didn't need IVF makes me wonder about his own state of mind.
I've been around a lot of doctors. I know that they are human, and that sometimes their own feelings overshadow the oath that they take, even as I don't agree with that I understand it. But this doctor did a unnecessary procedure on a woman and then put her life at risk by allowing her to carry 8 babies. I would love to hear his reasoning on this, even more than I wanted to hear from her. Because she could be dismissed as mentally ill, what he did was practically unforgivable as a doctor. It is as bad as the doctors who decide what they will and will not treat or perscribe based on their own faith or morailty, this doctor made a medical decision based solely on the whim of his patient, and apparently had no second thoughts about how this could impact her health, or if it was even necessary.
If the decision were up to me as to if he could keep his license I would probably revoke it. Doctors should be impartial, and should do what is best for the health of their patient. I can't see an arguement that leads to this implanting being the best for this woman. I really can't.
And I can't see where it would be OK for a woman like her, or like me, to get IVF simply because they want another child, but are too lazy or stubborn to make the effort to get a man. I sound really awful there, but come on, I can easily get pregnant again, I just need to have sex enough times. Why not save it for a woman who really needs this procedure?

2 comments:

  1. I entirely agree with you. IVF is not for mentally ill women who already have 6 children under the age of 8. That woman could have died, some or all of the babies could have died, and the babies will have physical/mental problems due to low birth weight and early delivery.

    I could have plastic surgery to have my nipples relocated to my cheeks- this does not make it a good idea, no doctor should indulge me. (Although that is a funny mental image.)

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  2. My god you are so lucky I wasn't drinking something when I read the nipple thing. You'd own me a new keyboard. Hahaha!
    But seriously, doctors aren't here to indulge in out whims, they are here to keep us healthy. At some point someone has to investigate this guy. If my doctor did something like that I wouldn't want her as a doctor anymore.

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