Regarding yesterday's post.

After an extended discussion last night regarding some of the contents of yesterday's post, I wish to make a clarification:

Since the article in question was decrying the IVF treatments which result in multiple fetuses in a single pregnancy, I concede the point that if a couple were to implant only a single embryo (or undergo selective reduction if multiple embryos implant), then because the pregnancy is more "normal," complications may or may not be traceable back to the way in which the fetus was conceived.

There is a follow-up article in today's NY Times which emphasizes the dangers of multiple births, and contains such happy descriptions as, "Dallin was the first to die. Blood seeped into his lungs from an open heart valve, the Stansels said. Kaitlyn soon followed. Braden lived for two weeks before an infection entered his trachea and killed him." In this instance, I stand by everything I wrote previously. Nothing but pure selfishness (and religious nuttery, in this case) would convince a woman that it was a good idea to keep her sextuplets because she wanted to "let God do what he’s going to do."

I could at this point launch into an essay asking why god hates this couple so much, and hates their babies so much (even though he created them...?), and generally seems like a very mean, spiteful, Old Testament kind of god, but I will refrain.

It seems obvious to me that there needs to be some sort of regulation of these procedures beyond the medical risks the doctors are required to assess. Why is it that in order to adopt, a couple must go through a lengthy screening process and have every part of their relationship dissected in order to ensure that the adopted child will be cared for, but nearly any couple willing to plunk down the money can walk into a fertilization clinic and potentially walk out with six fetuses in tow? It seems odd that in the latter case, the prospective parents would be given so much autonomy in deciding what is medically best for their children when it is obvious that they have no idea what sort of risks they are taking. The result of these uninformed decisions is, unfortunately, dead babies - which is exactly the opposite of what IVF is intended to do in the first place. Ironic, no?