I Think Therefore IB

A story that has had the world abuzz for the past few days is that of a 33-year old American woman giving birth to octuplets (yes, octuplets!). From the scientific point of view this is rather unique. At the moment all eight babies are alive and apparently doing well, and may go on to become the only complete set of octuplets to survive.
The multiple births immediately also raised some ethical questions, which have only intensified since it has become known that the mother already has six (yes, six!) other children under the age of 7 and apparently conceived all of the fourteen through IVF treatments.

From the New York Times Blog “Motherlode”:
Update on the Octuplets (Do peruse the readers’ comments.)
From CNN:
Eight Times the Ethical Questions
Risks of Multiple Births

Some of the questions raised in the articles:
- Is it ethical to transplant that many embryos? (In the US, there are no regulations about this, only ‘guidelines’ which suggest no more than 2-3 embryos be transferred to the womb.)
- Is it ethical to ‘reduce’/'abort’ any embryos if all of them take?
- To what degree should doctors and/or the state intervene with this kind of situation? What kind of regulations should be established or is this an entirely personal issue? (Some doctors state that it is only their job to educate their clients about the risks of multiple births, whereas others contend that this is a case of malpractice. The question of to what extent the US taxpayer will have to carry the burden of these octuplets has also been raised.)
- What and who is IVF for? Is it for people who have trouble conceiving even a single child? Is it to screen out genetic diseases in severely affected families? Or should it be for anyone who wants a child and has the money required for the procedure? (Some of the discussions focus on the fact that the “money buys anything” dictum does not apply for adoption and foster care, which involve extensive – also psychological – screening, whereas IVF is largely unregulated.)

Presently, many details about this particular case are still not known and a proper discussion can really only be had when they are available. Nonetheless, I thought I should alert you to this case so you can follow its developments.

As a final thought, we might also ask does this case of IVF-conceived children compare to that of couples who have large families naturally? Are the answers to the relevant questions above necessarily the same?

And while we are debating if its ethical to have such a large number of children, we might also consider if it is ethical to have only one child? (or none at all?)