Babies and Death Threats

PR exec: Death threats forced firm to drop octuplet mom

I, like many of my friends (shout-out to Jake) am sick to death of hearing about Nadya Suleman, the mother of now fourteen babies, including her recently-delivered octuplets. I am tired of reading about how she underwent in vitro fertilization, ad nauseum...but I couldn't pass up this article.

Death threats? Really? I think some people have too much time on their hands.

This is a woman who is living off of disability and the generosity of her mother, who already had six children and came out with eight more. Now, I am no IVF expert but I realize that it is not a common occurrence for every embryo planted during a procedure to make it to term. So planting eight embryos and getting eight babies is a little bit of a shock.

That being said, however, what kind of a person in that situation -- unemployed/disabled, already raising six children, living in cramped quarters and limited income -- willingly attempts to become impregnated again?? The messages received by Suleman's former PR firm may be harsh and inappropriate, but they underscore every complaint about social welfare programs in our country.

Now, I'm not going to go into a treatise on my political beliefs (for once, yeah I know). I am, though, a social liberal who sees the benefit of social programs to help level the playing field for others. I have benefited first-hand from welfare, tax breaks and donations from places like the Salvation Army, and it's unlikely that I would be where I am today without those things. I am a recipient of federal financial aid, I went to Head Start...and so on...

But I also have first-hand experience with people who exploit the federal welfare system, who drain the money paid in by working taxpayers so they can continue a leisurely lifestyle while we -- you and I -- raise their unplanned children. For every person who uses the welfare system appropriately, who uses the opportunity to better their circumstances and get off of welfare for good, there is a handful of people who find every loophole in order to suck the government teat until it runs dry.

Nadya Suleman is probably a very nice person. She is supposedly going to school to better her circumstances, and she should be commended for that. But shame on her for taking advantage of an already strained system in a tough economy, and in such a way that puts the possibility of accident out of the question. As a taxpayer, the only other exposure I think Suleman should get is a televised apology to the American people for highway robbery, and for undermining our faith in a social welfare system that used to work.


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