"Kate really needs to stop acting like a celebrity"


"Look at these poor kids. Stay out of the media!"


"My first concern is the welfare of the children"


"Kate, you can just walk away"


"Why still have the cameras on the kids now?"


"Is Kate at all worried about her young boy's character?"


"Having 8 kids without a dad is not going to be easy"


"If Kate hates photographers following her, just stop the show"


"Are you alienated from your own family now?"


"Why are these children continuously exploited for the show?"


"Free yourself from your frustrations & leave the public eye"


"How would Kate like it if her parents televised her?"


When Larry asked Kate if she thought Jon was a good father, she paused.

Hailey said she and Jon are in a monogamous relationship — despite evidence to the contrary, at least on his part — and that this is the first time she's ever been in love. She claims that she's "not the other woman" although she can understand why people would think that, because TLC did not allow the Gosselins to publicly announce the end of their marriage for almost a year.

Hailey explained that she and Jon began dating in May, while Jon was living at her parents house, because he was "sad and bored" and she was, well, just "bored." (Her father, a plastic surgeon, performed Kate's tummy tuck, and for some reason, Jon befriended Hailey's mother.)

Hailey — who auditioned, but was turned down, for The Real World and Bad Girls Club — wanted to do the E! interview because, as she puts it, "there's so many lies and ridiculous stories being circulated. How [the media is] portraying me is not me at all." She's referring to her 2005 arrest for possession of marijuana and several salacious photos (some from her own Facebook page, others sold to tabloids by acquaintances) featuring Hailey partying it up, as well as some girl-on-girl action.

This photo, Hailey says, was taken "totally out of context."



"We had tequila night in my apartment. My roommate had like a little BB gun. I wasn't holding it to her head i was posing with it!"

Of her pot bust she said, "I do not have a criminal record. I took a pretrial diversion and I took a class and it was expunged," adding, "I didn't smoke alone!" That seems to be the case.

In regards to her sexuality and past dating history, Hailey had this to say:

But that's not all E! News had in store. Producers juxtaposed segments with Hailey with interviews with Kate Major (whom the network refers to as "Kate 2.0"). Interestingly, both Hailey and Kate 2.0 described Jon as "a great guy," and said that dealing with the fallout of their respective relationships with him "has been a nightmare." More so for Kate 2.0, who quit her job as a reporter for Star, at Jon's request, and had plans to move in with him. According to Kate 2.0, Jon said he broke up with Hailey but apparently he did not, and she had no desire to be the other other woman.

Additionally, Kate 2.0 maintains how awesome Gosselin is and said that she wishes she "could think of a single thing wrong with [Jon] but I can't." Um we can think of about eight things wrong with him (and none of them are his children).

So what does Hailey think about Jon's fling with Kate 2.0 while they were together? Well, she doesn't. Jon told her it didn't happen and she believes him. Instead, she thinks that Kate 2.0 "just wants her little 15 minutes" and that she is "cuckoo," and that we need to remember that "girls are manipulating and mischievous."

I love Giuliana Rancic's reaction to all of this.

Of her future with Jon, Hailey says she's told Jon "let's not make too future goals [sic], that's just kinda when you write things in stone. It kinda leads to disappointment when it doesn't work out."

That sounds, um, wise?

Well, Hailey, even though you're not the one looking for your "little 15 minutes," you've still earned yourself an animated gif.

1.) She's good at finding hiding spots... you know, in case of paparazzi.


2.) Hailey's father [right] performed a tummy tuck — free of charge — on Kate Gosselin, at the request of his wife [left], who was a huge fan of Jon and Kate Plus 8, and noticed that Kate's stomach became stretched after carrying six babies at once. Hailey's parents were on an episode of JAKP8 (in which Kate gets plastic surgery). Her mom seemed like a crazed fan, saying to the camera, "I can't wait to meet [Kate] today. She's somebody I'd love to help, I'm going to help. Kate is a very outgoing person. Kate is very friendly. I mean, from hello you feel like you've known her. She's like a girlfriend without even knowing her."


3.) She's willing to help a bud out.


4.) She has a mugshot. Us is reporting that in 2005 (when Hailey was an 18-year-old college student in Indiana), she was arrested in a parking lot at three in the morning, after an officer saw Hailey and her friends passing around a pipe "consistent with marijuana." (The case was settled out of court.)


5.) Her Facebook boxes are also consistent with marijuana.


6.) She's into words of motivation. The synopsis of her favorite book seems really applicable to her BF's sitch: "This story is about adjusting attitudes toward change in life, especially at work. Change occurs whether a person is ready or not, but the author affirms that it can be positive. His principles are to anticipate change, let go of the old, and do what you would do if you were not afraid."


7.) She's into this photo of her self.


8.) She's into dudes.


9.) Hailey's friends are learning how to deal with all of this.

Having never viewed an episode of this show until last week, and now having watched about a half dozen of them, I'm starting to really like how boring and tense the show always is, because that actually seems to be the Gosselins' reality...which is rare for a reality show.

Jon is a 32 year old father of eight going through a midlife crisis, which means that he drives around in a sportscar built for two and dates college-aged women. Sure, Kate may have been a bossy nag, but that's only because she was married to a child.

In last night's episode, the couple got some company called Kids Crooked House to design and build their kids a set of freebie crooked houses... playhouse structures that look crooked on the outside, but are structurally sound on the inside. Ironic, I know.

For now, it looks like the show will go on. Jon and Kate explained that they will film their time with the children separately for the remaining episodes of the fifth season. It seems like the kids are the most professional out of the whole family.






Kate Gosselin on Divorce: 'Jon Left Me No Choice' [People]
Earlier: Media In A Tither Over (Definitely Divorcing) Jon & Kate

Gosselin Divorce Papers Filed [People]

There have been four malpractice suits filed against Kamrava since 1991, reports Time. Michael Verdi and his wife Eva Menen filed one of those lawsuits after receiving treatment from Kamrava in 1994. Verdi says Kamrava was rude and didn't answer questions appropriately. "We did research and figured out he was doing a lot of stuff wrong. He overmedicated her and he was doing insemination when she wasn't ovulating," said Verdi. They stopped seeing the doctor after Menen did not get pregnant after three months. Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, a fertility doctor who has known Kamrava for 20 years, speculates that the doctor began increasing the number of embryos he transferred because he was under pressure to up his success rate. Among patients younger than 35, Kamrava transferred an average of 3.5 embryos versus the nationwide average of 2.3. But, he had a 10% success rate versus a nationwide average of 39% of procedures resulting in live births.

In other news, Victor Munoz, Suleman's second publicist has quit. "It just got to be too much," says Munoz. "It's pretty much a free for all over there right now. They are freaking out right now." He added, "Nadya got real greedy. This woman is nuts."

[
The Fertility Doctor Behind the "Octomom" [Time]
Exclusive: Octo Mom's New Publicist Quits: "This Woman Is Nuts" [Us]

The bill, titled the "Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos Act," is the most sweeping state legislation on fertility procedures introduced since Suleman gave birth to her octuplets in January, according to the Wall Street Journal. Republican state Senator Ralph T. Hudgens, one of the sponsors of the bill, said in an interview:

Nadya Suleman is going to cost the state of California millions of dollars over the years; the taxpayers are going to have to fund the 14 children she has ... I don't want that to happen in Georgia.

The proposed bill would limit the number of embryos implanted in a woman at one time to two, or three for women over 40. It also goes a step further, with limitations on the number of embryos created in the lab to the number being implanted. This would essentially eliminate a woman's ability to freeze her eggs, which is unsurprising, considering the bill was drafted in part by the Georgia Right to Life organization. The group's president, Daniel Becker, tells the Journal, "To us it's a human-rights issue," adding that embryos deserve legal protection "as living human beings and not as property."

Several scientific organizations are opposed to the bill because it would end embryo freezing, and because they say in some cases it's necessary to implant more than two or three embryos. Sean Tipton of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine says the lawmakers "don't understand the complicated medicine behind it." Currently, the organization urges doctors to transfer only two embryos at a time into patients under 35, and no more than five in a woman over 40, but the guidelines aren't mandatory.

Resolve, a national fertility association, also opposes the bill. Executive Director Barbara Collura says: "It's the right of the person who has gone through this procedure to decide what they can do with those embryos, not their doctor, and certainly not the government."

While up to this point, we've watched the Nadya Suleman story turn into a tabloid media circus, this legislation marks the beginning of the octuplets' birth spurring actual legal changes. Georgia lawmakers point out that other countries, such as Britain, already limit the number of embryos transferred per cycle. Other countries have found ways to reducing risky multiple births, but they've also adopted policies that don't severely limit women's rights. Hopefully in the U.S., as more states introduce limits on embryo transfers inspired by Nadya Suleman, lawmakers will consult with doctors and create legislation backed by fertility specialists that doesn't also seek to limit reproductive rights.

In-Vitro Fertilization Limit Is Sought [The Wall Street Journal]
Ethical Treatment Of Human Embryos Act [Georgia General Assembly]

It seemed a bit weird that both Oprah and Mr. Doud were musing about Nadya's mental condition, since she was not there to answer for herself. He also claims that Nadya was under duress when she sat down for her interview with Ann Curry and explained that he believes that both his daughter and her doctor acted irresponsibly by implanting so many embryos. However, he said it was ultimately "God's will," explaining, "It is religious."

Earlier: Ann Curry's Octuplet Interview Takes Me Through The (Four) Stages Of Grief

Related: Dad: Suleman Under Duress Before NBC Interview [Yahoo News]

The man, whose identity will be revealed on Monday's Good Morning America, claims that he donated sperm at least three times while he and Suleman were dating. Once, he claims, Suleman drove him to the fertility clinic to donate; the other two donations were made at home. "I just remember her saying when I donated that the doctor told her that she had to keep it warm by putting it between her — between her breasts — just to keep it warm, keep it room temperature until she took it in," the man says.

The man says that he dated Suleman between 1997 and 1999, and he believes Suleman was married at the time. "[I] just really want to know if these are [or] these are not my kids," the man says, "Either which way, you know, know that if she needs it I'll lend a helping hand."

There is too much about this story that bothers me; I'm hesitant to even write about it at this point. But this Good Morning America ratings stunt just solidifies the fact that this story has moved way beyond a legitimate news piece into a ridiculous media circus; the ABC News website shows a picture of the man with a giant question mark over his head, a graphic one expects to see on the Maury Povich Show, and not on a major news program. "GMA To Reveal Identity Of Man Who Could Be Octuplets Father" the headline says, a maybe on top of a maybe on top of a who the hell cares at this point?

The fact that men have been missing from this story has been pointed out before: but why, in this instance, do we need to make this story even more ridiculous by "unveiling" a potential father the way we'd reveal a hot new toy for spring or the winner of Project Runway? There are 14 children in this picture, and none of them deserve to have their personal lives diminished to a point where their possible dad sits in a chair with a giant question mark over his head. If the man believes he is the father, shouldn't he be talking to Nadya Suleman instead of Chris Cuomo at Good Morning America? If he really wants to "help out in any way", shouldn't he avoid feeding the ridiculous nature of this story that leads paparazzi to follow this woman around and post "OCTOMOM GOES TO STORE" pictures in the tabloids? And does sharing with the world that Nadya Suleman kept his sperm sample warm by placing it between her breasts really help anything?

We've seen this sort of thing before: when the Anna Nicole Smith paternity fiasco came about, men stepped forward to claim that they were the father, of course, that they loved her, and would care for her, and the child, and that their hearts were all in the right place. And we all know how that turned out.

Perhaps it is in our nature to seek out villains: Nadya Suleman is the villain of the moment, and all who come to speak on her behalf or out against her are greeted with a huge hullaballoo, painted to be the newest starring character in an increasingly bizarre soap opera where the smallest players, all fourteen of them, seem to just be numbers in the background.

Man Gave Sperm 3 Times, Believes He May Be Octuplets' Dad [ABC News]

Earlier: Where Are The Men In The Octuplets Story?

Based on the tone of the text messages that followed that one, I suspected there was some hate towards Ms. Suleman on the part of my friend as well. But I didn't share it. Instead, at the end of the alternately fascinating and enraging hour-long program, I was left thinking of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' famous 5 stages of grief; after disbelief and anger, I felt depressed. (For whatever reason, "Bargaining" didn't make an appearance.)

I'm still trying to figure out why, almost 12 hours later, I'm still so down about it. Maybe it was the way the underside of Ms. Suleman's nose glistened with (snot? water?) at the beginning of the interview, suggesting she had been crying before the cameras were turned on. Maybe it was the disclosure of the specifics surrounding her special needs kids - one has autism, one has ADHD, and another has other developmental issues. Maybe it was the way she talked so glowingly and animatedly - she giggled! - about the two constants in her life - her doctors and her kids - yet rarely mentioned specifics about friends or extended family:

Maybe it was the fuller picture of just how financially unprepared for all this Ms. Suleman is :

Or maybe it was these, the photos of Suleman at a time before fame, before lip fillers, before the fourteen kids:















She looked like any young mother we might know.


Earlier: A Girl's Gallery Of Ann Curry's WTF Faces
Race, Religion & Responsibility: About The Backlash Against Octuplets' Mom
Octuplets' Grandmother Adds To Criticism Of Her Daughter
Nadya Suleman Defends Her Decision To Have Octuplets
Doctors, Pundits, Busybodies Feel 8 Ways From Sunday About Octuplets
Octuplets Mother "Obsessed With Children"

White ladies have a bunch of kids and get TV shows. A Hispanic woman pumps out eight babies and gets scorn – and maybe a few high-profile interviews.

Darter notes that audiences love white women with lots of kids; think Cheaper By The Dozen and John & Kate Plus Eight. Even the Duggars are getting a TV show. Well, you're thinking, those are families and Suleman is a single mom! Darter says:

Let's not forget the sexism –- how can a woman raise that many kids without a bread winner, without a brawny man to bring home the bacon?

With regards to the race issue, Darter might be on to something; commenters on an LA Times story about Suleman wrote things like:

Does anyone know if the mother is "Legal"? I still remember the last story the Los Angeles Times ran about the illegal alien mom who used fertility drugs and ended up with 10 kids, all at California Taxpayer expense.

And:

I heard she's an illegal and we the taxpayers are gonna foot the bill. For the rest of their lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The truth is, what color this woman is does not matter. What does matter is that she is unemployed; seems to think that "going back to school" will feed her children; plans to raise 14 babies using school loans and denies that she is on welfare — though she will admit that she is on "public assistance," i.e. foodstamps. Plus, three of her first six children are disabled and receiving federal assistance. (She doesn't consider this to be welfare.)

As explained on the Today show this morning (see clip above), Suleman says she has spent close to $100,000 on IVF treatments, and used to receive disability payments for an on-the-job injury, but that money has since dried up. Right now, she has no income. She receives $490 a month in food stamps. Andrew Sullivan quotes Heather Mac Donald of the Secular Right, who says: "The nine-week premature octoplet's delivery required 46 doctors, nurses, and assistants; in twelve days, their care has likely cost at least $300,000 and counting."

People are disgusted with her because she seems selfish and clueless, not because of her race. And they're grossed out by the Duggars, too. Trust. Part of the problem is the terrible economic climate, and the nation's sudden aversion to anything that seems greedy. (Remember what Helen Fisher said last week?) What seems greedier than scientifically creating a bevy of tiny beings with your DNA — more than you can possibly carry by yourself? (One commenter on Racialicious notes, "Every time I hear about people going to extreme lengths to have biological children, I think about the teenagers on heartgallery" — a website of children who have lived in the foster system the longest.)

In any case, it turns out that Nadya Suleman's father is Iraqi and her mother is Ukrainian. She was thought to be Hispanic due to keeping her ex-husband's last name after the divorce (he was Hispanic; her former last name was Gutierrez). So the Los Angeles paranoia over her being some kind of Latin "illegal" is, sadly, unsurprisingly, ignorant.

Instead of focusing on skin color — or lack thereof — maybe we should focus on the irrationality of blind faith? Because while Suleman, who says, "I do believe wholeheartedly that God will provide in his own way," refused to reduce embryos, Heather Mac Donald writes:

If you are a radical pro-lifer and believe that every artificially-conceived embryo must be brought to term, no fertility treatments for you unless you are prepared to bankroll all the resulting medical costs yourself. Either accept your God-given condition of infertility or accept a human condition on the man-made science for overcoming that infertility: use within reason.

Unmarried nonwhite woman's crapload of babies not considered "little gifts from God" [Racialicious]
Octuplets Backlash [LA Weekly]
About Those Octuplets [Andrew Sullivan]
Octuplets' mother receives public assistance [UPDATED] [LA Times]
Life, death, science, and family values [Secular Right]
Related: VIDEO-OctoMom And Doctor From Two Years Ago

In a new videotaped interview with RadarOnline.com, Angela Suleman, Nadya's mother, says she feels her daughter having so many children is "unconscionable." "She really has no idea what she's doing to her children, and to me," she says. According to Angela, a retired teacher, Nadya does not contribute money toward supporting her children. "Nadya promised to help me with the bills, but she never has," she says. "I lost a house because of it and now I'm struggling to look after her six. We had to put in bunk beds, feed them in shifts and there's children's clothing piled all over the house."

New photos of the interior of their three-bedroom house are posted along with the article. The house looks disheveled, and a RadarOnline.com reporter said the interior was "filthy," and there was food on the walls. Nadya's publicist Mike Furtney said that she shouldn't be held responsible for the condition of the house since she hasn't been home for weeks, according to the Associated Press. He added that Nadya planned to move into a larger house once the octuplets were healthy enough to be released from the hospital, though whose house that is, or how she is planning to pay for it was not explained.

Angela told RadarOnline.com that the sperm donor for all 14 kids was Nadya's boyfriend. Angela said he wanted to marry Nadya, but she refused because she wanted to have children on her own. She said her daughter was so set on having children that she got pregnant at 16, but miscarried and discovered that she had fertility problems. Though Nadya says she was treated by the same fertility doctor for all 14 children, Angela says she had to find a different doctor for the octuplets after Nadya's father begged one doctor not to implant anymore embryos because she already had six children. The Medical Board of California announced that the unidentified doctor who performed the procedure is under investigation for a "violation of the standard of care." Dr. Jaime Grifo, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology, wrote an article for the New York Post on the standard procedures of doctors in his field, and says "it wouldn't shock me if there was a doctor who would do this, but it would greatly disappoint me."

These new details will probably only increase public scorn for Ms. Suleman. New footage (video below) aired this morning on Today from her interview with Ann Curry. In the first, Nadya admits that she may have projected her own desire for a large family on her children, imagining that her children wanted more siblings. In the second, Curry asks how Nadya plans to provide for the children, and she does not seem to have a concrete plan, saying "God will provide in his own way." She says she is not receiving help from the government, and will only accept products from people or companies that are "just for the children."

But, advertisers may be reluctant to shower Suleman's children with gifts, as they have with other multiples in the past. An article in Advertising Age suggests that any company should be hesitant to seek brand placement given the circumstances of the octuplets birth. It also suggests that like the "Son of Sam" laws that prevent criminals from profiting for their crimes by selling their stories, there should be a "Mother of Octuplets" law "to prevent baby-obsessed crazy ladies from not only profiting fromt heir obsession but making their children wards of the Media State."

In a new essay in Time, writer Nancy Gibb questions why Suleman has so angered the public, while the McCaughey septuplets, born in 1997, received a congratulatory phone call from President Clinton, and millions of people tune in every week to watch Jon and Kate Plus 8 and the Duggars with their 18 children. Gibb suggests that Suleman has "violated some unspoken rule we have about fertility treatment." Almost everyone accepts the uncomfortable ethics of fertility treatments, because we understand people's desire to become a parent. Suleman however, makes us question those ethics because she already had so many children. Even as she is criticized for seeking media attention, new outlets continue to cover her and the public continues to watch. But, has Suleman crossed so many ethical lines that she deserves all the public scrutiny, or as Gibb says, is it time to stop criticizing someone else's personal parenting choices and "let this woman work out her very challenging circumstances without our vitriol making it any harder."

In the clip below from The Today Show Nadya says she projected her own wants onto her children, convincing herself that her six kids wanted a bigger family.



Below, Nadya denies that she had the children to make money. She says she wanted to do it on her own, but says she couldn't take care of the kids without her mother's support.

Grandma Blasts Octuplet Mom: "Nadya's Not Capable" [RadarOnline.com]
These Docs Are Bad Eggs [NY Post]
Let's Stop The Octuplet Mom And Her Ilk From Media Profit [Advertising Age]
Calling A Truce On The Octuplet Mom [Time]

The public's weird obsession with large families is easy to see: the Discovery Health channel alone carries such programs as 17 Kids And Counting, The Bailey Multiples, Six For The Road, and Super Quads, all centered around the wacky and wild ways of large families. And, of course, there's the ever-controversial Jon and Kate Plus 8 on TLC. For some reason, television viewers are fascinated with multiples, and the struggles of raising many children at once. Perhaps on some level, it's an exaggerated version of what many American parents are already going through: the budgeting, the stress, the time management issues, and even the rewards, all blown up to an extreme degree.

Yet for large families, the culture's obsession with, and in many cases, anger towards, large families has provided a great deal of difficulty, as Kate Zernike explores in The New York Times. With public scrutiny on the rise due to Nadya Suleman's octuplets, large families are facing more questions than ever, with everything from their ethical choices to religious beliefs to impact on the social and ecological systems being attacked. But as Zernike finds, many mothers are fighting back against the stereotypes.

"They expect me to come crawling in from Appalachia or something," says Barbara Curtis, who has 12 children. Curtis, a Montessori teacher, had two children with her first husband, seven children with her second husband over a decade, and then adopted 3 children with Down Syndrome(The Curtis' also have a son with Down Syndrome). Her family may not be traditional, but, she notes, "Children are a kind of wealth," Mrs. Curtis said. "Just not the kind of wealth our society tends to focus on."

And as Meagan Francis, mother of four, notes, the shows about large families on television tend to feed into the stereotypes: "One is about religious fundamentalists, one has sextuplets, the other is a family of little people," Francis says, "You get the feeling that anybody who has more than three kids is either doing it for bizarre reasons or there's a medical anomaly."

Leslie Leyland Fields, who has six children, agrees: "The smart, ambitious, fully realized 21st-century woman chooses career. The ambitionless woman has children," Ms. Fields says of the stereotypes, "The criticism feels elitist. It's coming from educated people, which makes me think, You have no excuse for thinking in such stereotypes."

But is it elitist to criticize people for producing large families, in terms of the impact they have on social and ecological systems? Author Alan Weisman says no: "Every single person has multiple impacts on multiple environmental resources. It's a no-brainer that the more people there are, the more stress there is on an ecosystem that doesn't get any bigger."

So what say you, commenters? If larger families can provide love, resources, and basic needs to their children, is it anyone's business how many children they have? Or, as Weisman argues, do people need to consider the ecosystem when bringing children into the world?

Perhaps the best thing we can do is stop viewing large families like traveling freak shows: for every "hey! they have 987 kids!" show that appears on television, the stereotypes, unanswered questions, and creepy voyeuristic factor of watching a family based simply on their numbers and not necessarily on their needs will continue for many years to come.

In An Era Of Shrinking Broods, Larger Families Can Feel Attacked [NYTimes]

A preview of Suleman's interview with Ann Curry aired this morning on Today (clip at left). (The full interview will air next Monday and Tuesday on Today and Dateline. Suleman was not paid for the interview according to NBC.)

Suleman tells Curry her desire to have a huge family stemmed from a dysfunctional childhood. "I just longed for certain connections and attachments with another person that ... I really lacked, I believe, growing up," says Suleman, adding that she felt she lacked a "feeling of self and identity," according to the Associated Press.

More of Suleman's backstory has been revealed in the interview, and in 300 pages of public documents obtained today by the AP. Suleman became pregnant with her first child in 1999 via in vitro fertilization after she was injured during a riot in a state mental hospital where she worked. She suffered spinal cord injury when a patient threw a desk. She filed for workman's compensation and according to a psychological evaluation she sunk into an intense depression because she was afraid she'd lose her baby. "When you have a history of miscarriages, you think it will take a miracle," she told her doctor. "I just wanted to die. I suspected I was pregnant but I thought, 'That's ridiculous.'"

Suleman collected $165,000 in disability payments for the injury, which she said left her in constant pain and helped end her marriage. In a December 2001 hearing, Suleman said pregnancy aggravated her back condition, forcing her to spend most the day in bed and leaving her unable to care for her first child. In the same year her car was rear-ended when she was leaving a doctor's office and she filed for workman's compensation again, saying she wouldn't have been at the doctor if not for the original injury.

Though Suleman is currently unemployed, she tells Ann Curry that she doesn't think she's being irresponsible by having more children because she plans to go back to college in the fall to get her Masters in counseling with the help of student loans and the school's day care program. "I know I'll be able to afford them when I finish my schooling," says Suleman. "If I was just sitting down, watching TV and not being as determined as I am to succeed and provide a better future for my children I believe that would be considered to a certain degree selfish." Though it's good to know Suleman has some kind of plan for providing for her children, she doesn't address why she thought having even one more baby was a responsible decision when she already had six at home and was planning to enter a demanding master's program.

But, she says she's providing the most important thing to her children - herself. "I'm loving them unconditionally, accepting them unconditionally," she says. "I'll stop my life for them and be present for them and hold them and be with them and how many parents do that? I'm sure there are many that do, but many don't, and that's unfortunate, and that is selfish."

Suleman says she was implanted with six embryos, as she was in each previous IVF procedure, which led to the birth of her six other children. Her fertility doctor, who performed each of the procedures, implanted six because her unnamed medical conditions makes it difficult for her to get pregnant, and then two embryos divided. She says she didn't want just one or two embryos transferred because, "those are my children and that's what was available and I used them. I took a risk."

Suleman points out that many couples undergo IVF, but "it's not as controversial because they're couples so its more acceptable." While it's true that the fact that she is a single mother may be fueling the outrage against her, it's clear from this statement that she doesn't fully understand why her decision to have so many children is so controversial. Maybe, as anthropologist Helen Fisher says in this MSNBC article, part of the reasons is that "[Society is] in a contraction mode, not an expansion one. And here is a woman who has absolutely disregarded that zeitgeist."

Octuplets' Mom: I Always Wanted A Huge Family [MSNBC]
Octuplets Mom Once Feared She Could Not Give Birth [AP]
Octuplets Backlash: Are We Just Jealous? [MSNBC]

Though how and where Suleman received fertility treatments is still unknown, the California Medical Board is investigating "to see if we can substantiate a violation of the standard of care" in their implantation. "It's not good medicine. It's really something that should be critiqued and condemned," says fertility specialist Dr. Mark Surrey. Suleman was once a psychiatric technician at a California state hospital, but she has been unemployed since 2001. It was discovered yesterday that Suleman filed two workman's compensation claims while working at the hospital, and her mother said that's how she paid for the fertility treatments. Court documents also show that Suleman was once married and only officially divorced a year ago. The records list the couple as having no children. [CBS News]