When too much is not enough

I am a devoted mother who happens to be a never married single parent who has raised my son without a partner. It has not always been an easy road to take, but before I made that choice I took the time to seriously consider all the options, responsibilities, and consequences of my actions. I had not planned to get pregnant, but realized that I was in the right place mentally and emotionally to have a child and could develop the resources necessary to successfully raise that 1 child. I have never taken any government assistance other than unemployment when I was laid off nor took any child support, no matter how hard things got over the 10 years of my son's life. While I would like to have another child one day, I know that raising that child alone again is not an option; it would be more than I could handle and just not be fair.

That said, while I understand a woman's desire and right to have and raise a child outside of a relationship, I do not understand the selfishness and lack of forethought displayed by Nadya Suleman. She deliberately planned to have a minimum of 7 children with no job or ability to raise them independently. She did not start to have her children until she was on disability for a back injury sustained on the job. She used the state's money to allow her to be pregnant for the bulk of the last 9 years and her pregnancies to justify her disabled status in order to keep collecting checks. She, in an interview, referred to herself as an 'incubator'. The fact that she claims to have saved for the money to pay for her in vitro shows that she did all this deliberately. Granting that the octuplets were not in her plan, at what point during her 6 other pregnancies did it not occur to her that the fact that she was raising these children without a partner, making her these children's sole support, was more than she could handle? Did she think that eventually she would meet a man who would want to be with her and help her raise all these kids? Did she really think that she could without a doubt be a good mother to all these children? As a woman who has experienced what I have experienced, her delusional and irresponsible behavior flat out mystifies and disgusts me. And the fact that I, as a tax payer, am expected to foot the bill is a slap in the face.

I and every one else is paying to support these kids have a vested interest in their welfare. In that interest, I would suggest that these children be taken from Miss Suleman and be placed with families that have the ability and desire to raise them responsibly. If she had the means, I may not feel that way. If she found herself in this situation by accident (although 7 times would be a stretch), I would be more sympathetic. However the fact that she deliberately chose to do this and underwent hardship to carry it out gives me no reason to be sympathetic. She chose to bring children into the world with no regard to their safety and future welfare and felt that it was everyone else's responsibility to help fund this. To me, it is child endangerment, pure and simple.

People have vilified the doctor who did this, laying the blame at his feet by saying that he never should have done the in vitro to begin with. This woman is unhinged and determined; if it was not this doctor, she would have done whatever it took to find another. The responsibility and blame lies on her shoulders and hers alone. Someone needs to show the regard for these children's rights and needs and place them in good, loving homes and her in jail or a mental institution where anyone who shows that kind of callous disregard for her children should be. Her delusion and need to be loved will never allow her to do that.

I hate to see a situation where the state needs to act in a way that infringes on the rights of another, but enough is enough. That is a lesson these children should never have to learn the hard way.