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The Ethics of Being a Single Mom

So I was reading the Yahoo!news earlier tonight when I came across this article featuring a woman who had just had a set of octuplets and already has six other children.  The mother’s mother is, of course, concerned that her daughter is “obsessed with having children” and has been since she was a teenager.  The mother also says that

“It can’t go on any longer . . . [s]he’ got six children and no husband.  I was brought up in the traditional way.  I firmly believe in marriage.  But she just didn’t want to get married.”

The article also includes some dubious psychiatric advice from doctors who have never met either the woman having the children or her mother.  The article further divulges the father’s name of some of the older children which the author of the article aquired through the Associated Press who reviewed those children’s birth certificates.

Apparently, this woman’s pregnancies have “sparked an ethical debate” about whether or not this woman should have been allowed/encouraged to continue having in vitro fertilization after she already had 6 children.  However, I think the more clear ethical issues in this case surround the behavior of the grandmother and of the press.

With regard to the grandmother’s comment, would her daughter’s situation really be that much better if she were married?  If she had a husband, would it all of sudden be a piece of cake to raise 14 children including one set of octuplets?  It seems ...

Girls vs. Women

Okay, here’s the deal:  I’m the president of my all-female residence hall at my university.  I love my home and I love helping form this community of strong women leaders for my campus.  But one thing that has come up in our meetings (particularly with out brother and sister halls) is that people refer to our residents as "girl" not as "women."  I try to always use women because we’re (mostly) all over 18 which means that legally we’re women (just like the males living in our brother hall are men).  Is there anyway that I can bring up this issue without looking like a bitch?  I don’t think the rest of hall government would be very responsive, and I ...

Okay, here’s the deal:  I’m the president of my all-female residence hall at my university.  I love my home and I love helping form this community of strong women leaders for my campus.  But one thing that ...