6.12.2007

"The babies will be named Bailey Elizabeth, Savannah Jane, Molli Grace, Cole Robert, Blake Nickolas and Grant Williams, but Masche and his wife, Jenny, had yet to decide who gets which." -- Two sets of sextuplets were born over the weekend, in Arizona and Minnesota. Both sets of parents used follicle-stimulating drugs to enhance fertility, and when a higher order multiple pregnancy resulted they chose not to selectively terminate. First of all, congratulations to all 12 new babies and their brave parents. But while I hope they have a happy, healthy life together, I'm finding it difficult to reconcile my pro-choice stance with my immediate reaction of scorn and disbelief. If I believe in reproductive choice for all women, why does their choice seem so wrong to me? Is it the influence of religion, the use of medical resources, the financial angle, or just the thought of those names being handed out like popsicle flavors...except all those things bother me about childbirth generally. It's just writ large here. Something to ponder...

1 comment:

Nathaniel Woodward said...

I also have very conflicted emotions on this topic, especially when at least two couples I know have used IUF or IVF to conceive, then gave birth to twins. I'll ponder this over a bit more...