A beaming Dr. Karen Mapes appeared on "Larry King Live" this week to discuss the epic birth of octuplets she supervised at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower, but the ticker at the bottom of the screen said it all: "OCTUPLETS OUTRAGE."
The story of Whittier mom Nadya Suleman has quickly turned from medical miracle to public fury -- so much so that Suleman herself complained in an interview that aired Friday on NBC's "Today" show that society is unfairly judging her.
"I feel as though I've been under the microscope because I chose this unconventional life," she said, suggesting there is a double standard because she's a single mother.
Instead of eliciting understanding and sympathy, her interview fueled more controversy.
Suleman is an unemployed graduate student, lives with her parents and already had six children under the age of 8. She has become a lightning rod for criticism for the nation's healthcare woes, the economic crisis and the medical ethics of in vitro fertilization.
The reaction is decidedly different from what occurred in 1998, when the first set of octuplets born in the United States were met with curiosity more than scorn. The Houston octuplets also had two parents and were born during better economic times.
"Ten years ago, this would have been a medical miracle -- heartwarming, everyone would have been thrilled," said Allan Mayer, a crisis management specialist and principal partner at 42West in Los Angeles. "If everyone was riding high and feeling flush . . . it would be more of a 'live and let live' attitude. Now everyone is counting pennies. There's a lot less forgiveness these days than there would have been at the height of the boom. . . . The public is almost primed to go very quickly from joy to suspicion and fury."
Much of the frustration comes from all the questions Suleman has yet to answer: what responsible fertility clinic would transfer so many embryos into a 33-year-old mother who already had six children and said she made it clear she did not believe in selective reduction? And how is she planning to provide both financial and emotional support to so many young children?
Operators at the hospital fielded calls from more than two dozen disgruntled Kaiser members complaining about the mom's super-sized healthcare tab as they are struggling to pay for the medical care they need.
Kaiser said the number of angry calls declined after the hospital made it clear it had nothing to do with getting Suleman pregnant.
