Multiple births via IVF - when is enough enough?

[mantra]

The children are different, but I wouldn't say they were stupid. The show was fascinating at first, but the mother becoming pregnant the 20th time was sheer idiocy. I thought the same thing as Mellie - that it was surprising her uterus hadn't ruptured. Still the family are self supporting which is one positive.

There was some other woman over there who ended up having 8 not so long ago through IVF. I think she already had 6 and when she had the octuplets her partner left her. The last I heard of her she was crying and saying she couldn't cope and was broke, but it was obvious she only had the last lot for the media attention.

[annielaurie]

The children are different, but I wouldn't say they were stupid. The show was fascinating at first, but the mother becoming pregnant the 20th time was sheer idiocy. I thought the same thing as Mellie - that it was surprising her uterus hadn't ruptured. Still the family are self supporting which is one positive.

There was some other woman over there who ended up having 8 not so long ago through IVF. I think she already had 6 and when she had the octuplets her partner left her. The last I heard of her she was crying and saying she couldn't cope and was broke, but it was obvious she only had the last lot for the media attention.

Yes, that's true, she is called "octomom" up here by the media, her name is Nadya Suleman ..

[mantra]

Would you like thome frieth with your potht thtacking thmelly? Ith Bart dead? Uthually you thwitch between your perthonalitieth!

One of Mel's posts is worth a thousand of yours. How about you leave her alone, otherwise we might think you're a stalker as well as being obsessed with her.

[Bart]

Don't worry mantra, some posters don't have the gumption to post under their normal ID instead they make their pathetic posts under a worn out sock....but we're not meant to know

[punk]

Don't worry mantra, some posters don't have the gumption to post under their normal ID instead they make their pathetic posts under a worn out sock....but we're not meant to know

oh the fucking irony

[mantra]

There was no IVF treatment back then, but this woman was amazingly fertile.

The world record for having the most number of children officially recorded is 69 by the first of two wives of Feodor Vassilyev (1707-1782), a peasant from Shuya, 150 miles east of Moscow. In 27 confinements, she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets. The children were born between 1725-1765.

Another bit of trivia - the world's youngest mother at 5 gave birth to a boy in 1939. There is actually photographic evidence. Hope this pic doesn't offend. As she was still alive in 2002, I assume she's alive today.

Into the hospital at Pisco (Peru) came a tired, ragged Indian woman from the foothills of the Andes. She led by the hand a shy little girl, scarcely three feet tall, with chestnut braids and an enormously bulging abdomen. Pointing to the frightened child, the Indian woman begged Surgeon Geraldo Lozada to exorcise the evil spirits which had taken possession of her. Certain that little Lina Medina had an abdominal tumor, Dr. Lozada examined her, and received the surprise of his life when he discovered she was eight months pregnant, making her the world's youngest mother ever.

Dr. Lozada took her to Lima, the capital of Peru, prior to the surgery to have other specialists confirm that Lina was in fact pregnant. A month and a half later, on May 14, 1939, she gave birth to a boy by a caesarean section necessitated by her small pelvis. The surgery was performed by Dr. Lozada and Dr. Busalleu, with Dr. Colretta providing anaesthesia. Her case was reported in detail by Dr. Edmundo Escomel to La Presse Medicale, along with the additional details that her menarche had occurred at 8 months of age, and that she had had prominent breast development by the age of 4. By age 5 her figure displayed pelvic widening and advanced bone maturation.

Her son weighed 2.7 kg (6 lb) at birth and was named Gerardo after her doctor. Gerardo was raised believing that Lina was his sister, but found out at the age of ten that she was his mother. He grew up healthy but died in 1979 at the age of 40 of a disease of the bone marrow.

There was never evidence that Lina Medina's pregnancy occurred in any but the usual way, but she never revealed the father of the child, nor the circumstances of her impregnation. Dr. Escomel suggested she might not actually know herself by writing that Lina "couldn't give precise responses." Lina's father was arrested on suspicion of rape and incest, but was later released due to lack of evidence. Medina later married Raúl Jurado, who fathered her second son in 1972. They live in a poor district of Lima known as Chicago Chico ("Little Chicago"). She refused an interview with Reuters in 2002.



http://www.oddee.com/item_90966.aspx

[mellie]

It wont be long before that shokumentary channel TLC creates a reality TV show about children having children.


Anyone recall that 1970's mondo film, 'faces of death' ?


I think it's time we started to delve into the socio-psychological effects of broadcasting this crap, there would be a lot of despotic people out there who would like the Duggars, Kate plus 8, Octamom etc who would do absolutely anything to get on TV, and think producers praying on vulnerable people like this is what these RT programs are all about.

Exploitation!

I'd like to think Australians are above this sort of thing, this and would boycott channel TLC on foxtel if it began airing this rubbish here in Australia.

I know this is another topic, but as a society, are we getting sicker when we actually delight in watching reality TV shows detailing the dysfunction of clearly unstable and disturbed persons lives who will do anything (including exploit their loved ones and put their health at risk having 20 odd babies) just to see themselves on TV?

Even abuse IVF services just to meet their objective?

I find it hard to believe that the Duggards refuse to let their children watch TV, yet allow them to be exploited by TLC as they star in their own reality TV show.


How far will TLC go?

Sadly, I think our society is to blame also, if we continue watching it, they will keep producing these trash programs.

I will just add, a child-centric editor of 19 and still counting (The Duggars RT program) and numerous other was charged with child-sex offences...
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2 ... h-carolina.

I think if they insist on producing these shows, then they should leave minors and vulnerable persons out of them, how will these kids react psychologically to having every detail of their young lives ridiculed by the hating public, some of the nasty things people are saying about this family online in opinion polls is alarming, how will these kids cope with this in the long run, even if their Mother Michelle seems quite content thanking fans and relishing the spotlight after having miscarried baby number 20 just the day before?


I just worry about the kids.
________________

[mantra]

I think if they insist on producing these shows, then they should leave minors and vulnerable persons out of them, how will these kids react psychologically to having every detail of their young lives ridiculed by the hating public, some of the nasty things people are saying about this family online in opinion polls is alarming, how will these kids cope with this in the long run, even if their Mother Michelle seems quite content thanking fans and relishing in the spotlight after having miscarried baby number 20 just the day before?

You've raised some very good points Mel. I think many of us watch these shows initially because the families are so unusual, but they become boring quickly - especially when you see a half hour episode of the daughters shopping for knitting needles.

The kids are exploited especially on the series Kate plus 8 - those kids are very insecure and inarticulate.

Reality TV seems to be the go these days - and Australia is following the same path as the US. Some studio has signed the Chalk family (with the 11 kids by sperm donor) up for a series.

I know this is another topic, but as a society, are we getting sicker when we actually delight in watching reality TV shows detailing the dysfunction of clearly unstable and disturbed persons lies who will do anything (including exploit their loved ones and put their health at risk having 20 odd babies) just to see themselves on TV?

I rarely watch them although the younger generation does as you've probably noticed with your own kids Mel. Give me good old Inspector Lynley, a documentary or a foreign film on SBS any day.

These new shows that are popping up - Jersey Shore and the Kardashian family are absolute rubbish, but young women find some entertainment value in them. How pathetic and shallow are the lives of these "celebrities" who earn indecent sums of cash just for being stupid and thoughtless.

The standards should be raised - but while these networks are raking in the cash - it's not going to happen.

[mellie]

Mantra, the Duggars have 19 Kids and are 'still' Counting (formerly 17 Kids and Counting and 18 Kids) ...so they have been involved with TLC and the reality TV business for some time....



The RT series will end if this family don't manage to produce another live infant .... could this be why they are hell bent on having number 20, and if this woman dies as a result of this, what will their fans think then?

[mellie]

The standards should be raised - but while these networks are raking in the cash - it's not going to happen.

- My sentiments exactly Mantra, well said.


It's our society that needs to change first, and for the better.

And our ACMA need to uphold a standard also .. because this crap we can do without.
They don't mind censoring and policing everything else, including our media when it suits them, why not this?
Neither myself or my children watch reality TV shows what so ever, I always found them pointless and a waste of time, this and refused to let my kids get into them.

The only one I let my daughter watch was Australian Idol (she likes to sing) but as for Big Brother and all the other crap...no, I always made sure we flicked the channel over before they started.