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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Time To Consider Limits For Litters Moral Issues First More-The-Merrier Feelings Can Crumble Under Weight Of Responsibilities.

Who wants to stand with a sour, Grinchy frown at the bedsides of the McCaughey septuplets?

No one here. This has been a week for celebration, as the world’s only known surviving set of septuplets starts life in an Iowa hospital. These young parents deserve a toast: They have a long 18 years ahead of them.

But this also has been a week to examine the medical ethics of the doctors and researchers who brought us to this point. Human babies were never designed to be born and raised in litters, yet suddenly, medical technology has outpaced our capacity to nurture our young. For the infertile, baby hunger is a lasting heartbreak. It stands to reason that desperate couples will undergo any procedure, spend any amount, to produce the babies they yearn for.

But there are other sorrows to consider. There is the heartbreak of poverty - the Dilley sextuplets of Indiana were recently moved out of their brand new home to smaller, cheaper quarters. There’s the heartbreak of disability - an Albany, N.Y., set of sextuplets includes several children with serious medical problems; one is partially blind. Large-scale multiples have high risks of cerebral palsy, brain damage and blindness. There’s also the heartbreak of divorce. The father of Kansas quintuplets cited stress, financial strain and zero time with his wife for their relationship’s demise.

Worst of all, there is the death of a child. A Mexico City mother of septuplets experienced that grief seven times last winter.

Neither the pain of infertility nor the money to be made from dispensing these fertility-boosting drugs should weigh more heavily than the moral issues these births raise. In a tiny Iowa community, companies lined up to shower the McCaughey family with gifts. It would be lovely if the magic of these Iowa births could keep glowing through all of these babies’ days. Reality doesn’t work that way.

There will be moments ahead when a brand-new 15-passenger van will be useless. At 2 a.m., those dead-tired parents will be roused to feed not one but seven crying infants. Even the best of parents have human limits, as does the enthusiasm of the most caring of communities.

Physicians should be more restrained in the use of fertility drugs. This society simply should not be filled with more scientifically created children than we humans have the capacity to tend.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see “Uncertainties, yes, and reaffirming joy”

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, EDITORIAL - From both sides CREDIT = Jamie Tobias Neely/Editorial writer

For opposing view, see “Uncertainties, yes, and reaffirming joy”

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, EDITORIAL - From both sides CREDIT = Jamie Tobias Neely/Editorial writer