Here I Am, World!

The world has heralded in another celebrity, along with eight tiny siblings, octuplets born to their mother, Nadya Suleman. A woman who, as a young girl, fantasized about having babies, a lot of them. And now she has, a lot of them. Not only her previous six youngsters, but another eight, spanking new babies. It's nothing short of amazing what modern medical science can accomplish.

Conventional society draws back in horror when a lesbian couple or a homosexual couple, pledged to one another for the long run, feel the need to round out their household by the addition of a child. A child they deeply want, a child to cherish, to nurture, to introduce to the world, and to help discover his/her place in the world. Two people committed to one another, irrespective of gender.

Here then is a young woman who conforms far more to what society expects. She was once married, is now divorced. Her conjugal relations with her husband did not lead to motherhood. However that little inconvenience was handily solved through in vitro fertilization, and the kindly assistance of a neighbour who consented to have her use his sperm.

Little did he realize that his generous offer would result in fourteen children. What a moral and ethical dilemma that must pose to this bewildered man. Who had, fair to say, asked Ms. Suleman not to continue using his sperm. A gift given can no longer be controlled by the giver, however.

So Ms. Suleman has her horde of children now, just as Mother Hubbard - living in that spacious Nursery rhyme-tale that has so entertained children over generations, had hers - spilling out of every nook and cranny in their peculiar abode. Ms. Suleman lives in a two-bedroom bungalow which her concerned and loving parents purchased for her.

It's difficult to imagine Ms. Suleman, her children and her two parents living together in such close quarters, their finances rather strained. In such an event as the birth of octuplets, though, the instinct of others is to step forward and offer help; that of individuals, of health professionals, of corporations.

And of course, government too, since such straitened circumstances do call upon some levels of government to offer social assistance. Never might it have been more needed. Yet Ms. Suleman, obviously an indomitable woman of firm convictions, feels she has something more to offer society. Herself, as an expert in child management.

And she envisions herself turning notoriety into profit, offering herself as a future media darling, with perhaps her very own television show, the better to entrance an already-unbelieving audience, sitting gape-mouthed at the prospect of a mother of fourteen infants and children sacrificing her time with them for public space and material gain.

The world is such a very peculiar place.