I don't know if I really need to comment on Nadya Suleman, the recent mother of octuplets. Her story kind of speaks for itself: of her aggravating, willful stupidity and stubborn denials of the fact that she is living her life sponging off of the goodwill and tax dollars of others. And yet at the same time, she is willing to raise special-needs children, and have a large family in a time when increasing numbers of adults are choosing not to have children at all. She demonstrates (as far as I can tell, peering through the lens of the media) a few admirable traits, but those seem to me outweighed by what I have a hard time seeing as anything but her maddening self-centeredness. Heck, the selfishness calls into question whether those traits that seem admirable aren't, in fact, so pure in themselves.

She now has 14 children, but thinks that she's going to go to school and get her master's degree. In Counseling, of all things.

What can really be said of her, except that this is exactly the sort of person that welfare reformers (and eugenicists) point to as Exhibit A in support of their arguments? I am staunchly pro-life; I don't think those children should be punished for the foolishness (or mental derangement) of their mother. They deserve a chance at life, a home to grow up in and parents to raise them. But this woman needs to be stopped. News reports say that she's gone into hiding because of the death threats she's been receiving (low and vile acts, no matter how much anger one might understandably feel), but she has a website up to receive donations. I'm glad to hear that these children are being provided for out of the compassion of strangers, but utterly frustrated by this woman's attitude that she's done no wrong.

I guess it doesn't really help to make a posting about this, except that this caught my attention and made me want to rant a bit. Aside from holding the fertility doctor responsible for the role he played in enabling Ms. Suleman's unconscionable act (I agree with her mother's choice of words for this), what can be done?