This morning Danielle Bean was leading a spirited discussion: The Right to Motherhood: Faith & Family Live!

The discussion is about Nadya Suleman, the single California mother who recently gave birth to octuplets, and has six additional children — all born through IVF. And none growing up with a father. (The “donor” recently married someone else.) Nadya is saying she plans to be off welfare as soon as she finishes school …

When asked the reason she had six embryos implanted in her womb (producing eight children), she gushed about “always wanting a large family.” While this woman’s desire to preserve the life of the embryos created through the assisted reproductive technology is commendable, the whole story is a study in disordered thinking that has become so endemic in our society… Most notably, the belief that parenthood is an individual “right” rather than a joint responsibility shared by the mother and father who bring a child into the world. 

Several individuals at F&F called for the woman to relinquish the children for adoption, so that they might have a mother and a father. In truth, this may be the best option for the sake of the children — at least some of whom, by virtue of the circumstances of their birth, will continue to have special needs.

However, this strikes me as one of those situation for which even the “best option” is less than satisfactory. How much better if someone (her parents, perhaps) had given this woman a “reality check” before she went back to that clinic! 

I can’t help but wonder … Does she plan to stop at 14?

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