Remember Those Septuplets In Iowa?

The McCaughey Septuplets turned eight years old this Saturday. The event was noted in the Des Moines Register, but I don't recall seeing anything about it on the network news shows. I suppose that's good. Back in November of 1997, it seemed like that was all you saw on the news, some poor reporter standing out in the snow in front of the hospital in Des Moines, giving updates on the septuplets' impending birth.

Oh, the good old days of 1997 when the big stories were about birth not death.

My daughter was two then and quite enough for me. On Thanksgiving night in 1997, she threw up all over herself and her crib and as we cleaned her up, I thought about how awful it would be to tend to seven sick children instead of just the one we had. Even worse, being sick myself with seven well children running wild.

But there's more to deal with than just the normal childhood problems times seven. Multiple births are inherently risky. The babies are always low birth rate and will likely have serious health issues, requiring them to stay in the hospital for months before then can go home. (Two of the McCaughey septuplets have a type of cerebral palsy).

There's a dirty little secret in the fertility trade called "selective reduction." When the Pergonol does its job too well and the childless woman now finds herself pregnant with five or six embryos, she does have the option of reducing them to a more manageable number, like two or three. Many do it, preferring two healthy babies to six medically fragile ones.

Of course a fair amount refuse, saying they don't want to play God. To which I have to ask "Weren't you fooling around in God's jurisdiction already?" Yes, those embryos are living creatures, but they are a medical aberration, brought about by artificially stimulated ovaries. God never intended for woman to have litters.

It would help if insurance companies covered fertility treatments. They could allow women another go-round with the Pergonal if they release too many eggs in one cycle. It's certainly cheaper than covering the costs of multiple births and the longterm treatment all those babies will need for the first year or two of their lives, if not longer.

Then again, I'd skip the fertilty treatments all together and adopt a baby from Guatemala.