The pic above t shows octuplet mom Nadya Suleman. She what I have read around the 'net, she had at least six or as many as eight inseminated eggs implanted in her. I know all eggs rarely take, but what were they (her and the doctor) thinking? This was a ethically questionable decision. Consider the following: 1) She already had six children. 2) She is a single mother. 3)Typical in vitro costs between $8 000 and $15 000. 4) Used some of the $165,000 in disability payments from a work place injury to play for the procedure. 5) Already uses food stamps and child disability tax credits to take care of her first six kids (maybe its because she spent her money on, I don't know, in vitro?)
Then there is the story of the 60 year old mother from Western Canada. In my view, another questionable move. Statistically speaking, these parents aren't even likely to see their children graduate highschool. Just how active will they be in the children's lives? Chances are, they don't even have grandparents. They may not even have aunts or uncles, and if they do, they will also soon die. Cousins would be all grown up. These kids will not have a normal childhood. I think it was incredibly selfish for these parents to do this. They are incredibly lucky that the kids are relatively healthy.
i did some research about the increased likelihood of down syndrome with age. The data I looked at only showed the rate of incidence for mothers up to 49.
Mother's Age | Incidence of Down Syndrome |
| Under 30 | Less than 1 in 1,000 |
| 30 | 1 in 900 |
| 35 | 1 in 400 |
| 36 | 1 in 300 |
| 37 | 1 in 230 |
| 38 | 1 in 180 |
| 39 | 1 in 135 |
| 40 | 1 in 105 |
| 42 | 1 in 60 |
| 44 | 1 in 35 |
| 46 | 1 in 20 |
| 48 | 1 in 16 |
| 49 | 1 in 12 |
I can't imagine how likely their children were to get life debilitating diseases like this.
I think these two scenarios are just a tip of the bio ethics. Here's a crazy prediction. Within our lifetime, a woman will carry her clone to term.
