The Octomom Moment

Will we finally start regulating the IVF industry?

February 24, 2009

Some of the more disturbing aspects of contemporary western culture all seem to have converged in the recent birth of octuplets to Nadya Suleman, a single mother in California: voluntary single parenthood via sperm donors, manufacturing of babies in Petri dishes, freezing live human embryos indefinitely, a renegade scientific and medical community. It's hard to get one's head around the situation and address it directly because nothing about it is normal or natural, from beginning to end.

Let me be quick to preface my thoughts, however, by asserting my gratitude to God for the lives of these eight tiny babies, all unique human individuals whose gift of existence we welcome and cherish. We pray for them and for their mother.

That said, a case like this reminds us that in the brave new world, the bizarre is quickly becoming the new normal -- underscored by the fact that countless observers were arguably more stunned by images of Suleman's supersized, pre-birth abdomen than by the consideration of the choices she made.

Space and time limitations don't allow me to touch on all of the aspects of the octomom phenomenon which demand our reflection. I might mention in passing two questions we should be asking.

First of all -- as Kay Hymowitz asked in last Friday's Wall Street Journal -- 'Where in the World is Octodad?' While other countries have banned sperm donor anonymity, the U.S. leaves an easy out, allowing clinics to pay men an average fee of $200 per deposit of ejaculate, to "suggest" that they volunteer to be identified to their eventual offspring, but reassuring them in the end that responsibility ends at conception.

Secondly, why did Suleman, in an interview on the Today Show, describe in vitro fertilization (IVF) as her "only option" for having a "big family"? Traditional marriage did not end up on her short list of options. Call me utterly naïve, but I would like to know her reasons.

Notwithstanding the chaotic plethora of social disarray all combined into the Suleman incident, there is one common thread here that invites vehement and immediate public scrutiny from multiple sectors and across all ideological lines: the billion-dollar artificial reproductive technology (ART) industry.

Suleman was the poster child of Beverly Hills infertility specialist Michael Kamrava. Only 33, Suleman is single and unemployed. She has had six pregnancies resulting from fertility treatment by Kamrava. Four of her pregnancies were of single children, one pregnancy resulted in twins, and the last pregnancy resulted in octuplets. Single women longing to have children are no problem for the ART industry.

Nor is it a problem for the unregulated ART industry to spawn renegade physicians -- like Kamrava -- who take the industry's normal disregard for human life to new extremes. The octuplet birth is about as close as you can get to a medical miracle. Multiple gestation pregnancies are fraught with danger for both the mother and the children: maternal risks include preeclampsia, miscarriage, high blood pressure, and stroke. Fetal risks include premature birth, low-birth weight, cerebral palsy, still-birth, as well as the long-term health problems associated with premature birth or low-birth weight.

According to Nadya Suleman, her doctor transferred six embryos in the procedure that led to her octuplet pregnancy (and if this is true, two of the embryos each gave rise to a twin). Of course, transferring multiple embryos in the face of unacceptable risks is perfectly legal in the wild west of ART medicine. There is no legal regulation on the ART industry beyond physician certification and certain lab standards. There are no professional sanctions, and the "suggested" guidelines certainly do not prevent physicians from doing the unthinkable.

The process begins when doctors hyper-stimulate a woman's ovaries to prompt the release of dozens of eggs at a time (a process that is itself fraught with serious, and potentially deadly, health risks). The eggs are mixed with sperm (either from the woman's partner, or -- in the case of Suleman -- from an anonymous friend) and by the hand of a laboratory technician, a small cohort of living human embryos comes into being. The doctor, in consultation with the mother, determines how many of these to implant, and how many to freeze for potential future implantation.

Some European countries try to minimize the human loss involved in ART by limiting the number of embryos that can be created to two or three, and requiring the transfer of all living embryos, so none are consigned to the absurd fate of being frozen for potential future "use." In the U.S., however, it is not uncommon for doctors to transfer as many as 3 or 4 embryos in fertility treatment in the hopes that one embryo will survive and grow. When two or more embryos implant and grow, the physicians routinely recommend "fetal reduction": abortion of one or more of the growing babies to lessen the compound health risks associated with multiple gestation. (According to Suleman, her doctor implanted six embryos for each of her successful pregnancies.)

It's no surprise that even proponents of IVF are crying foul. "I find it a huge ethical failure that she was even accepted as a patient," University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Art Caplan told the New York Times, given that Suleman was already a single mom with six children.

The ART industry is fiercely defended on the grounds that it helps desperate, infertile couples bring "wanted" children into the world who otherwise might not exist. This defense wholly embraces the idea that the ends justify the means. In ART, the "means" are the deliberate creation and destruction of some human beings in favor of others. And for this completely unregulated, very powerful, billion-dollar industry -- where "success" is defined as the birth of a child and innovative techniques move quickly to clinical practice without oversight -- no cost, it seems, is too great.

Suleman's doctor profits from her "success" because his clinic gets to report successful pregnancies that result from treatment. The information about clinic success rates is public, gathered and reported by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The higher the success rates, the more attractive the practice. Therefore, in the highly competitive, highly lucrative and completely unregulated field of ART, there is tremendous incentive to implant multiple embryos to increase the chances of a pregnancy.

In the United States, out of the more than 138,000 treatment cycles reported in 2006 (the most recent data available), almost 90% of treatment cycles involved the transfer of more than one embryo; 44% involved the transfer of three or more embryos. Clinics are supposed to report the number of embryos that implant along with the subsequent number live birth babies that result from the treatment. But the CDC doesn't publish information on number of babies in the established pregnancy, so the number of babies that are destroyed by "selective reduction" -- likely thousands a year -- is not publicly available.

Taking a step back, it's hard to deny that the ART industry is almost solely responsible for the current social climate where a living human embryo is now regarded more as a product or resource than as the individual human being that it is. Through ART, the scientific and medical community has been able to create, manipulate, study, and destroy hundreds of thousands of human embryos. And currently, about 400,000 are frozen indefinitely in the United States alone, according to the most recent, reliable data. Additionally, these frozen individual human embryos have been targeted for years now by researchers who want to cull new lines of human embryonic stem cells from them.

To say that ART has opened a Pandora's Box of cultural ills is among the grossest of understatements. But perhaps the octomom episode will constitute a watershed moment ushering in the long overdue era of regulation for an industry that feeds on innocent human life in the name of fostering it, thinly concealing unbridled greed with a veneer of putative compassion

Pelosi's mouse slated for $30M slice of cheese

Talk about a pet project. A tiny mouse with the longtime backing of a political giant may soon reap the benefits of the economic-stimulus package.

Lawmakers and administration officials divulged Wednesday that the $789 billion economic stimulus bill being finalized behind closed doors in Congress includes $30 million for wetlands restoration that the Obama administration intends to spend in the San Francisco Bay Area to protect, among other things, the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi represents the city of San Francisco and has previously championed preserving the mouse's habitat in the Bay Area.

The revelation immediately became a political football, as Republicans accused Democrats of reneging on a promise to keep so-called earmarks that fund lawmakers' favorite projects out of the legislation. Democrats, including Mrs. Pelosi, countered that the accusations were fabricated.

See related story: Deal reached on historic stimulus

Politics aside, the episode demonstrates that no matter how hard lawmakers argue that they technically lived up to their pledge to keep specific projects from being listed in the bill, there is little stopping the federal money from going to those projects after the legislation passes and federal and state agencies begin deciding where to spend their newfound dollars.

Programs for sexually transmitted diseases, smoking prevention, a clean-burning power plant and a computer center also appear ready to get infusions of money once the bill becomes law, congressional offices told The Washington Times.

"One of the proudest boasts of Democrats supporting their trillion-dollar spending plan is that it doesn't contain earmarks. But it seems like powerful Democrats will still find a way to bring home the bacon," said a frustrated Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, who took direct aim at the mouse.

"This certainly doesn't sound like it will create or save American jobs," Mr. Steel said. "So can Speaker Pelosi explain exactly how we will improve the American economy by helping the adorable little" critter?

A spokesman for Mrs. Pelosi said Republicans "fabricated" the claim.

"The speaker nor her staff have had any involvement in this initiative. This is yet another contrived partisan attack," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said. "Restoration is key to economic activity, including farming, fisheries, recreation and clean water."

Republican lawmakers said they learned of the marsh money when asking about how various agencies plan to spend stimulus money. The vitality of the mouse has been an issue for Mrs. Pelosi and other California Democrats since the early 1990s.

President Obama boasts that the stimulus plan contains no earmarks because Congress technically did not use the earmark process for lawmakers to request and drop in specific spending items. Congressional leaders were putting the finishing touches on a $789 billion final version of the bill Wednesday night. It was not clear how many of the programs criticized by Republicans remained in the package.

Some of those items that Republicans are calling earmarks include $200 million for a clean-burning power plant in Mattoon, Ill., and $750 million for the National Computer Center and $500 million for the National Institutes of Health offices, both located in Maryland.

Other spending questioned by Republicans -- but not considered on the chopping block -- are $275 million for flood prevention, $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries, and $650 million for the digital TV converter-box coupons.

The list goes on: $1 billion for administrative costs and construction of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office buildings, $100 million for constructing U.S. Marshals office buildings, and $1.3 billion for NASA, including $450 million tagged for science.

Then there is the $300 million for hybrid and electric cars for the federal government. The funding includes golf carts for federal workers.

For more political news, check out the latest Washington Times blog posts.

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey

Commentary by Betsy McCaughey

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.

New Penalties

Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541)

What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.

The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.

Elderly Hardest Hit

Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).

The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.

In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.

Hidden Provisions

If the Obama administration’s economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.

The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).

Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration’s health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. “If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it,” he said. “The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol.”

More Scrutiny Needed

On Friday, President Obama called it “inexcusable and irresponsible” for senators to delay passing the stimulus bill. In truth, this bill needs more scrutiny.

The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It produces almost 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Yet the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn. This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.

(Betsy McCaughey is former lieutenant governor of New York and is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Betsy McCaughey at Betsymross@aol.com

Last Updated: February 9, 2009 00:01 EST

Legionaries Acknowledge Founder’s Behavior

2/3/2009

Catholic News Agency

“We can confirm that there are aspects of his life that weren’t appropriate for a Catholic priest.'

NEW HAVEN (CNA) - Responding to unconfirmed revelations of misconduct by the Legionaries of Christ Founder Fr. Marcial Maciel, the U.S. spokesman for the Legionaries of Christ has acknowledged unspecified actions that “weren’t appropriate for a Catholic priest.” However, he insisted that Fr. Maciel “was and always will be the father of the Legion.”

The blog “Exlcblog” claimed that Fr. Scott Reilly, the Legionaries of Christ Territorial Director in Atlanta, Georgia announced to those in the Territorial Direction that Fr. Maciel had a mistress, fathered a child, and lived a double life. The blog claimed that the Legionaries of Christ is therefore renouncing Father Maciel as their spiritual father.

CNA contacted Legionaries of Christ spokesman Jim Fair, but received no specific confirmation of any allegations.

“We’ve learned some things about our founder’s life that are surprising and difficult to understand,” Fair told CNA on Tuesday.

“We can confirm that there are aspects of his life that weren’t appropriate for a Catholic priest.

“Obviously he had human feelings but it remains true that through him we received our charism, which has been approved by the Church.

“Our commitment remains and we‘re going to go forward and love Christ and serve the Church,” he remarked.

Asked to verify the specific allegations, Fair replied:

“Fr. Maciel died over a year ago and obviously whatever has happened is between him and God and God’s judgment and mercy, so we’re going to let him take care of that.”

CNA asked Fair to verify whether the Legionaries of Christ were distributing information on the allegations through their regional directors.

“We communicate internally, but I can’t make any comment beyond that,” Fair replied.

“I know that there have been rumors about are we somehow denouncing him. Obviously we are not. Fr. Maciel was and always will be the father of the legion.

“One of the mysteries of our faith is that God sometimes works through flawed human beings.”

In 2006, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, citing Fr. Maciel’s advanced age and declining health, decided to forgo a hearing into allegations he sexually abused around 20 different teenage recruits to the Legionaries of Christ as far back as the 1980s. The Congregation invited Fr. Maciel “to a reserved life of penitence and prayer, relinquishing any form of public ministry.”

Fr. Maciel died on January 30, 2008.

Superbowl 43: America Needs some Football, Faith and Fun

By Deacon Keith Fournier
1/29/2009

Catholic Online

The outspoken Christian witness of players on both of these teams offers a chance to keep the worries away after the big game concludes.

TAMPA, Fl (Catholic Online) – The big football game is only days away. Most American families are busy planning the fare for their popular American past time, the “Super Bowl Party”. The teams this year, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals, generate extraordinary enthusiasm among their supporters and equally powerful animosity in the hearts of their opponents.

This year, many Americans are fearful for the future and hoping that something can turn this ailing economy around. They are worried about their family’s future and deeply concerned over so many of what seem to be a host of multiplying problems.

Perhaps this Sunday, at least for a little while, those worries will be put aside and the sheer enthusiasm of the game will lift that concern. However, it will take more than a successful outcome; however we may define it, to keep our spirits lifted come Monday morning.Once again we can look to the players on the field to give us some help.

This year, the outspoken Christian witness of players on both of these teams offer a chance to many of us to keep the worries away even after the big game concludes, no matter which team wins.

From the Cardinals outspoken evangelical Protestant quarterback Kurt Warner and running back Tim Hightower to the devout Greek Orthodox Safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Troy Polamalu, the Christian faith, in its many expressions, is alive and well on the football field and provides a guiding light for many of our favorite athletes.

None of the players who speak so openly of their Christian faith have prayed for a successful outcome for their team. At least they do not admit to having succumbed to the temptation.Instead, they demonstrate a mature understanding of both the power and the purpose of prayer.

Aaron Smith, defensive lineman for the Steelers, openly speaks of the comfort he found in his relationship with the Lord when his young son was diagnosed with leukemia. Running back Willie Parker has shared with both friends and the Press that he prayed for recovery from his own multiple injuries this season. Their stories are repeated among many of their team members.

We all need the sheer enjoyment and release that will come from watching this big game. We all need a little fun and relaxation. It all seems so intense these days doesn’t it? I will admit to having a favorite team on Sunday, my adopted Pittsburgh Steelers.

My love for the Steelers goes way back to my days, now so long ago, as a student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Back when Terry Bradshaw led that team, the fans of that wonderful sports town stole my heart. That extraordinary team managed to turn me into a real football fan and I have enjoyed this wonderful sport ever since.

I truly hope that on this Sunday, along with the sheer enjoyment of stretching out in our living rooms, or in various centers of celebration throughout the Nation - along with family and friends - and rooting for our favorite team, we will all stop and listen to the simple message of so many of these athletes. They are refreshing in their willingness to simply share their faith in the Lord.They remind us all that faith is not complicated.

Quarterback Kurt Warner told an interviewer for a story released by the Associated Press, “You just have to embrace it, whatever God does in your life and wherever he puts you." Steeler’s Defensive lineman Aaron Smith, when asked about his reaction to the hard news of his son’s leukemia diagnosis, told another reporter, "It's really through the Lord's strength that I've been able to cope with this."

So it can be for all of us as we face the many struggles in these difficult days in America. We can let go and believe that the One to whom we direct our prayer is trustworthy. He has a plan for each one of us and for each of our families. He will also give us the strength to persevere through any of these struggles, if we will stop worrying and turn to Him.

I will be flying back from Canada on Sunday. However, I should arrive home in time for the kick off. I can’t wait! I need some relaxation and good human fun. Let this 43d Super Bowl begin, and, oh, by the way, “Go Steelers!”