“Would A Parent Do This?”
Gaydos and I have this running joke - every day we come into the office and one of us says “Wonder if we have another Octo-Mom Octo-Update…” We already know the answer. We comb through dozens of websites and watch all the cable news channels to find out what’s going on for our show that day. And since we’ve collectively introduced you to Nadya Suleman a couple of weeks ago, it’s now a running joke that something new pops up every day about this pathetic woman.
Through daily Ocot-Mom Octo-Updates, we’ve introduced you to the Octo-Mom, the Octo-Grandmom, the Octo-Granddad, the Octo-Dad (or Donor) but nothing could prepare us for yesterday’s news: Octo-Mom got an offer that from an entertainment company to star in an adult film. We called it “Octo-Porn.”
Sure, it’s a funny (or skeezy) premise, but it brings up a serious ethical dilemma.
You’re first instinct (like mine) is to wretch. Who in their right mind would want to see this woman in an adult film? But before you dismiss this as some cheap and tawdry way for an entertainment company to get some free press at the Octo-Mom’s expense, let’s consider the offer. The company will pay her one million dollars for being in the film. If she signs a contract with that company, the company pays for her and her children’s (all 14, not just the Octo-Babies) health care.
This is more than a hypothetical; it’s a real (albeit, tawdry) conundrum. Should the Octo-Mom do the film to get the money? Does she sign a contract to do more films to actually get her and all of her children the health care they will need the rest of their lives?
I reluctantly say yes. I say she has no choice as a parent. As a parent, the number one duty you have is to provide for the children you brought into this world, freak show or not.
Octo-Mom has told Ann Curry as well as other journalists that she will do whatever it takes to keep those children and she will be able to provide for them, one way or another. Even though I think this woman is delusional making statements like that (the hospital bill alone for all her kids will run over a million dollars), if she turns down the offer she loses those children to the state.
Unlike a delusion which is based on fantasy (like the Ocoto-Mom saying she is getting her master’s degree and will be able to pay for the children’s needs that way), let’s look at the empirical evidence: She’s broke, has no job, no support system, doesn’t have a partner or husband to help her, and she’s living at her mother’s house which is in danger of foreclosure. Oh, and the hospital won’t allow the children to go home with Octo-Mom because they say she doesn’t have a proper place to take care of the needs of eight kids, let alone 14.
And there are no other offers on the table.
In other words, she doesn’t have a choice. If she doesn’t do the film and take the money, even though it’s crude and may be against her moral compass, she is a hypocrite. She will lose her children. She’s the one who said she’d do “anything.”
What would you do?
Mac
I would offer to be one of the “Octo-Eight”! Seems to me if I was #1, I moght be the 1st!!!
And then all her kids — now and forever — can endure the additional stigma of having a porn-queen mom. What a great way to multiply the neglect and abuse that they already have coming. How about, instead, being responsible and humane, and putting these precious ones up for adoption. There are lots of loving, responsible, well-to-do people standing in line to adopt, and who would scoop them up.
Well I dont think she should be allowed to keep the kids any way and she should still do the video to get health ins for the other kids she has now and she also needs to get her masters so she can support those kids. But defenetly those 8 kids need to be put up for adoption there are lots of good people out there that are not able to have kids and can give those kids a decent life they sure arent going to get one with her!
FACEBOOK IS THE NEW BOOTY CALL IN TODAY’S WORLD…OOOO BURN!!
Should of never of done it in the first place serious chemical inbalance there. As for splitting up the children figure the abuse they will get in the foster care system if you’ve never grown up in the system you would never know it’s not all peaches and cream. If she’s able to get some money to provide for her children she needs to do what she has to do the get the job done.
For a cool Mill. Shoot I’ll be her co-star, we are in a recession you know!
You always have a choice. She chose to have the fertility treatment. She chose to have 14 children with no husband (read: 2nd income, help, etc), no job, living in her parents; house, etc…..she chose to do all of this. So - she can choose how to provide for them.
Sure she can choose to be in the adult film. And then her kids, already being media freaks, will be tagged with that additional burden to bear. She could choose to give them up for adoption to people who actually want children that can’t have them and aren’t psycho.
Cheri, Fountain Hills
I have eight children and have struggled to support them my entire life. That being said, there has never been a day that I regretted having any of them. For the most part, they have been trouble free.
It is obvious this lady loves her children. Who am I to judge her love for them and who are we to judge her actions? I believe their are some moral issues and realities that are pipe dreams with this situation. However, I believe Kaiser has some guilt with this to bear the costs of hospital bills. It was their Dr that promoted the preganancies with the insistance of the mother.
Hell, what price are we paying to the banks for all the screwing they gave us up front? Its like our mortgages- they get us up front with costs, during the course of the loan, and now we are bailing them out with trillions of our dollars? This lady is a sidelight to the big show going on.
she needs the money she needs a house.it is wrong if she dosent have any other offers she might not have a choice.
Gaydo’s can I ad you to MY facebook
I agree with everyone else, she needs to give them up. But if she is not willing to do that then she shouldn’t be allowed to receive any help from the state, and she should be forced to care for thoses babies all on her own. Not very many people will be willing to watch that but to be payed that much money there must be enough people who are.
She should do it! I would not buy it though… stainless steal….. GROSS! BURN!
I do not know to much about her. I mean what her finacial situation is. I do now this as a husband and a father, I would do what ever I can do “leagally” to make sure my family is taken care of. Also with 14 kids 1 million is not enough for her to quit her day job either.
First, you two crack me up on my drive home from work. Mac sounds like my brother in-law, that I’ve had a crush on since I met him. On to the subject at hand. Octomom: nice play on the questions: you could be a researcher or a politician. Yes, keep on annoying us with the story. She is a story that keeps on giving…kind of like our new problem, of syphilis outbreak in the Valley. You might like to talk about that on your show. As a mom, does any mom really think about how much it’s going to cost or how they are going to raise the children? You’d be surprised. I am in health care. These people are all over the place. They want to have children, but have had no education or even thoughts of how they are going to raise and support them. They just know they want children. Personally, before having children, I knew I only wanted 2, because I thought about insurance, cars, healthcare, food, college. A friend of mine had 5 children. She even said to me one day…when we were young…why didn’t you remind me about car insurance and college. She just knew she wanted lots of children. As far as making the movie, does she have a choice? She does have choices. It’s a choice that she has to make and live with. She made the choice to have more children. It wasn’t a wise choice, but once again, she is having to live with.
As far as the physician? I’m sure he is being investigated by the medical committees. If not, he should be. (Idiot)I was researching the requirements by physicians offices for fertilization, and requirements differ everywhere from high screening to no screening….it seems the place where I adopted my dog 4 years ago was much stricker….I had to clean remove my shoes, wash my hands, give a back ground check….heaven forbid if I was a bad person that wanted to adopt a dog!! I would have been reported and made “Mac and Gaydo’s show”. haha
It seems like something is missing, no?
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