PARENT'S RIGHTS NOW!

The Associated Press has reported:

A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.

Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family.

Also, the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.

We have a suggestion for determining who should pay for the costs of raising these children—the biological parents. That means “Dad” and "Mom”--"sperm donor" and "egg donor." Give him visitation, but make him contribute. And the idiot doctor and hospital administrators who approved this whole fiasco should reimburse the hospital for the costs associated with this dangerous and expensive procedure out of their own pockets. At a time when many Americans cannot afford even basic preventive health care and when social safety net programs are being cut to the bone all over the country, spending limited resources on this kind of self-indulgent procedure borders on criminality. If it isn’t against the law it ought to be.