This week in Minneapolis, a set of sextuplets were born to Ryan and Brianna Morrison. Usually I have an opinion on everything, but I really don’t know what to think about this situation. The Morrisons had been trying to conceive for more than a year, resorting to fertility drugs. When doctors determined that Mrs. Morrison was pregnant with 6 embryos, they suggested they terminate all but two of them. The Morrisons declined this advice, and the babies were born 4 ½ month premature. Babies born this early have underdeveloped skin, kidneys, brains and lungs. Current premature infant viability (50% of babies born at this stage survive 1 year) is 24 weeks; the Morrison’s sextuplets were born at 22 weeks, meaning statistically they have less than a 50% chance of survival. As I write this article late Friday night, two of the Morrison sextuplets have already died.
If faced with this situation, I don’t know what I would do. I personally support a woman’s right to have an abortion (I won’t use the euphemism “Right-To-Choose; let us call a spade a spade), but I couldn’t personally be involved in one. If my significant other and I had been trying to conceive, and we were blessed with a multiple-pregnancy, I don’t know that I could terminate any of the fetuses. The fact that it would increase the remaining fetuses’ viability would be a tough trade-off.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this subject. Please contact us at political.musings@insightbb.com. I’ll take your comments and integrate them into a future article.
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8 comments:
I have a very strong opinion on this matter. The choice to move ahead with the multiple birth option was a mistake. The notion of giving birth to six babies that have been conceived using fertility drugs can be a bit overwhelming at best. The suggestion by the doctor that at least some of these embryos be terminated to give a better chance to the remaining ones was a good one and should have been followed. It is far better to have two healthy full term children then to have two or three (the third baby has already died) children with severe medical and emotional disabilities. These babies were born 4 1/2 months premature when their organs are not fully developed. Even if these three survive what are the chances that they will have severe medical problems. The chances are great and when one is dealing with fertility drugs and multiple embryos they need to act responsibly and give the babies the best chance by minimizing the amount of embryos.
If even one of these beautiful children live, the Morrisons will have succeeded. It's sad to see how hard they have had to struggle, when neglected babies are born every day, but good for them for making this heroic effort. And good luck and God speed to them and their three remaining infants.
I think it is easy for those who have never been in this situation to "know" what they would do as they've never been faced with actually making the tough call.
Imagine if you had six living children and you had to decide to kill off 4 of them in a "painless" procedure so that 2 could survive.
And you had to watch the doctor inject them to stop their hearts from beating on a TV monitor. Would that not be absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to do? Of course it would!
So if the Morrisons viewed their six healthy fetuses at 10 weeks as living babies, NO WAY could they choose to reduce.
It is a horrible situation to be in and there is NO right answer. If you had two healthy babies and "reduced" the other 4, would you ever wonder -- could I have carried 3 successfully? 4? 5? All 6?
Fact is, another set of sextuplets were born in Arizona the same weekend at 30 weeks gestation. Odds are that these babies will thrive and be healthy and happy. How could the Morrisons know that their pregnancy would end at 22 weeks?
You can never know. All you can do is make the best decision you know how to make based on your beliefs and live with the consequences (good or bad) afterwards.
Editor's Note on the above comment: I don't know much about multiple-births caused by fertility treatments, but I'm pretty sure they terminate the additional fetuses before they have a heartbeat.
Come on people, lets be informed before we make comments. This is an emotional subject, lets not change things around to make it sound better for our side, and worse for the other.
Brandon Brown
Editor-In-Chief
Political Musings
Cicero, Indiana
It's a difficult choice the couple is making, and I don't pretend to think there is a good choice to be made. Only two very potentially painful roads exist.
To clarify a few points...(and I feel qualified to do so, because I am an OB/gyn physician)...the sextuplets born at 30 weeks are not "likely" to all "thrive and be healthy" (happy I do not feel qualified to comment on). Simple twin gestations have a 4-fold increase in cerebral palsy, even after taking into account gestational age at birth. Sharing bloodflow among several fetuses is a complicated affair, so even pregnancies that make it to term have an impressive rate of birth defects, learning disabilities, and cerebral palsy. I applaud the parents and doctors in Arizona for achieving a 30-week pregnancy, but please don't laud this as a perfect situation.
Second, we can detect fetal hearbeat at around 5 weeks of gestation, only days after a missed period, so I hate to call you on it, but the information about "no heartbeat" is not correct. Selective termination involves ligating the bloodflow through the umbilical cord, which develops much later in pregnancy than the hearbeat, and usually reduction procedures occur later than 10 weeks.
Blogs are so interesting. The distinction between "opinion" and "educated opinion" gets lost. Of the four posts I read, two had incorrect "facts" supporting their stance. My advice: don't judge these people. Don't pretend you know what you would do if placed in their shoes. Hug the kids you have been blessed with, and if you don't have kids, hug your dog, your fish, or whatever you have that you love, and thank your god that you don't have to know what this decision feels like.
I stand corrected. Thank you for your comments.
Brandon.
I'm sure this will not be a popular opinion, but these people make ANGRY for several reasons. I wish they would stop saying it was God's will for them to have sextuplets. It was God's will that you NOT get pregnant by conventional methods, it was science that allowed you to create sextuplets. I find it hypocritical to have used science when convenient, and then choose to ignore the advice of the experts re: reduction and say it is God's will. The only one's who are going to pay for these people's selfishness is the children (if any of them survive). The children will be the one's facing a lifetime of disabilities, medical procedures, physical pain and recovery. At the age of 24, most women have at least a good 15 years of fertility left...medicine/science improves, sometimes it just happens, why the rush to fertility drugs? Did these vehemently pro-life people ever consider adopting? Another aspect of this that angers me is that these people have no problem setting up a website to ask for outrageous donations, and so have the other couples expecting sextuplets in the US. These people are asking for things and name brands that the average family would struggle to afford or have to compromise the one they want vs. the one they need. One final thing I wish to comment on is the cost of the medical care for these types of situations. Who do you think will wind up paying for these enormous bills that these selfish people, who admittedly cannot pay, have run up? It will be you and me, whether you are insured or not. Insurance companies will increase premiums to all to counter the losses incurred by cases like this, any amounts written off by the hospitals will be absorbed by all future patients in across the board increases, etc. There is no aspect of this case that I find positive. Three of the babies have already passed, the remaining are in critical condition and suffering. The only ones I feel for are the babies. Any torment these parents are feeling is justly deserved.
To address when selective reduction occurs: Usually it is performed between 9-12 weeks. Often, the couple will have CVS testing done around the 11th week or if a little later in the pregnancy amnio. This way, they will know if any of the fetuses have any chromosomal defects before the doctor chooses which babies to "reduce."
You can see and hear a heartbeat via ultrasound usually around 5 or 6 weeks. By 10 or 11 weeks, you can actually see the baby moving, hear the heartbeat, etc. It happens very quickly!
The usual reduction procedure involves injecting the fetus with potassium chloride which stops the heart. The parents can watch the procedure via ultrasound if they choose to.
I am not a doctor, I am the mother of triplets. I believe I remember the doctors telling me that the selective reduction had to be done no later than 13 completed weeks of pregnancy. In any case, you don't really have a long time to consider your options - it needs to be done relatively early in the pregnancy.
I have read almost all of the literature (even the scientific studies) and had the SR talk with our perinatologist.
I know many couples who HAVE reduced from quads or triplets and many more who haven't, with both good and tragic outcomes on both sides.
It is a gut-wrenching decision either way. I never considered SR and in retrospect, I carried my triplets to 35 weeks with relative "ease" so it was the correct decision. My children did not go to the NICU, did not have lengthy hospital stays and are very healthy. However, you do not know this when you have to make the decision!
Of course, the odds with sextuplets are SO, SO, SO much worse than with triplets. I don't know what I would have done in the case of sextuplets. I cannot imagine carrying them through a pregnancy or caring for that many infants/toddlers!
I see a sextuplet pregnancy as the failure of medical science. You think your fertility specialist is in control of things. Fact is, he or she just IS NOT.
Any responsible doctor would advise against proceeding with insemination if they saw 8 or 10 follicles ready to erupt. However, if they only see 2 or 3, then you proceed and somehow end up with 4, 5 or 6 fraternal babies. Obviously the ultrasound technology is not totally accurate!
To the previous poster, I hear what you are saying about paying for all of this. However, no one sets out to have sextuplets. Most RE's consider an outcome of 6 babies to be a complete failure - they don't even like to see a triplet outcome!
However, having been through fertility treatments, I believe it truly is God that gives you the children. SOOO many people go through treatment and are unsuccessful and never achieve pregnancy. So, I can totally see the Morrison's viewpoint that God gave them the children (yes, with medical help) and it was up to Him to help them live or take them home.
It is a very personal decision. As to parents of multiples begging for freebies -- that has long been an annoyance to me. I would never, ever do that. But, if they ask and people want to give, then so be it.
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