When it comes to a woman's decision of what to do with her own body, I am as pro-choice as they come. However, when 33-year-old, Nadya Suleman, who already had six children, was artificially inseminated with eight more embryos, the question that came to my mind was: what does she need all these kids for?
There are so many positive applications for genetic science that sometimes we ignore the negative ones. If this woman didn't have any children and thought she would never be able to, the prospect of artificial insemination would seem logical.
So this makes me wonder if anywhere in the high-tech genetic lab where this took place, any of these brilliant doctors bothered to invest in a file cabinet. Taking a couple of seconds to glance at the file labeled "Suleman" would reveal that she already had six, artificially implanted children. One would think that knowing this, doctors would have at least advised her against the procedure.
Instead, what they did was toss a handful of embryos into an overworked, but still remarkably hospitable womb. This particular application of artificial insemination does not seem logical to me.
I know that Americans would find it much too harsh for the government to so much as suggest a minimum amount of children that a family can have. It is a free country and people have every right to take on the role of parent, so long as they are ready for it. However, an individual having enough children to start a baseball team is just irresponsible.
If there is one thing in this world that there is absolutely no shortage of, it is people. Crude as it may sound, for people to cut back on reproduction could be one of the healthiest things that has happened to world in a long time.
Need proof? Think about what you see every day: how much is wasted; how much gas is burned; how much of absolutely every possible commodity is consumed, all to support the lives of us hungry human beings. We can try to ride our bikes and recycle, but the truth is that even the most eco-friendly people can only reduce their carbon footprint.
People are never going to stop having sex, but in cases of artificial insemination, when common sense seems nowhere to be found, the law should step in. There is no point to having as many children as this woman now has. In fact, it boggles my mind as to how she intends to raise 14 babies as a single mother.
Of course we live in a free country, but sometimes people misconstrue what this means. What Nadya Suleman has is an unhealthy obsession with having children. When doctors implant more embryos in a person like this, they are encouraging this obsession.
It is instinctual to want to have children. Some people may even feel obliged to do so, in order to contribute to the human race, or carry on their family name. Psychologists suggest that Suleman may have been addicted to having the identity of a mother. Whatever her reason is for having 14 kids, I can only hope that she has the capacity to give each one of them the attention they deserve.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
