Even More Thoughts On Nadya Suleman

check this out from GlobalComment:

Much of the media coverage regarding this event surrounds the debate as to whether or not it was medically ethical to implant eight embryos in a woman of her age, who already had six children. Though Ms. Suleman was offered the opportunity to terminate a number of the pregnancies, when it was discovered how many were viable, she refused.

No one pauses to consider that Ms. Sulemans approval of what occurred indeed legitimized the events:

She was not forced to carry these babies to term; it was an active decision on her part. If, as feminists, we can argue that women have the right to choose to have an abortion, then the right to choose motherhood should be equally validated; furthermore the right to privacy extends to Ms. Suleman’s decision as well.

Choice does not only involve abortion, it also extends to actively seeking to reproduce. While we may feel dismay at the number of children Ms.Suleman has conceived, the moment we begin to question whether she had the right to make this decision, we invalidate the argument that reproduction is a private issue and that a womans body should at all times be under her control.

We do not have the right to place a limit on when female agency ends. There are many men that are fathers to multiple children by various women and their virility is praised, yet when a woman gives birth to a large number of children her sanity is questioned. In this we can see the historical link between the uterus and the hysterical woman.

Much criticism has been leveled at Ms. Suleman. She has been referred to as a bitch, compared to a dog, had her sanity questioned and even called selfish. Yet if we claim to love children and support motherhood, why is one woman’s fertility such an issue?
Read entirety on globalcomment

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