Octuplets' mother wanted 'huge family' for feeling of connection:
The mother of octuplets born last week in Bellflower told NBC News she wanted to have a "huge family" because she longed for personal connections she felt she lacked in her childhood.
"I just longed for certain connections and attachments with another person that I -- I really lacked, I believe, growing up," Nadya Suleman said in an interview today with NBC's Ann Curry. "Reflecting back on my childhood, I know it wasn't functional. It was pretty -- pretty dysfunctional, and whose isn't?"
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And now she's going to pass on that dysfunction to her children - while living with the parents with whom she believes she had no connection. What's wrong with this picture?
Watch it, bio, my mom did the exact same thing: Gave up a promising career as a doctor to have the big, loving family she always dreamed about as an only child of parents who made it clear they never wanted any. Lonely childhoods have a way of affecting people.
On the other hand, 14 is a bit excessive. My mom planned for 5.
Would somebody please explain why the doctor responsible for her having eight children is being granted anonymity. On what basis is a doctor entitled to that. Doctor-patient privilege was intended to protect the substantive privacy interests of the patient, including his or her name. It does not provide a basis for the doctor to be granted anonymity. If the alleged basis is his potential liability for doing so, either civilly, criminally or administratively (ie, revocation of his license to practice) again, there is no basis for his name not being released.
Razib, would you enlighten us as to the genetic diversity / evolutionary benefit (if any) in multiple births? Are these octuplets only as genetically diverse as siblings? More? Less? Some more and others less? Identical twins, for example, wouldn't seem to confer a genetic benefit to the species, but perhaps they would to the parents? Also, how in the world did the eighth octuplet come as a complete surprize to the doctors? Generally speaking, multiple births are routine in the, er, 'lower mammals', right? Cats deliver a litter, not all kittens survive. Why did this become much more rare among humans and higher mammals (primates (?)).
Razib, would you enlighten us as to the genetic diversity / evolutionary benefit (if any) in multiple births? Are these octuplets only as genetically diverse as siblings? More? Less? Some more and others less? Identical twins, for example, wouldn't seem to confer a genetic benefit to the species, but perhaps they would to the parents? Also, how in the world did the eighth octuplet come as a complete surprize to the doctors? Generally speaking, multiple births are routine in the, er, 'lower mammals', right? Cats deliver a litter, not all kittens survive. Why did this become much more rare among humans and higher mammals (primates (?)).
1) they can be no more diverse than siblings, assuming they are all fraternal. if some are identical then their average relatedness goes up, and they are less diverse than siblings.
2) from what i understand when it comes to multiples sometimes the doctors do "miss" a fetus or two.
3) it is probably not useful to think in terms of benefits to the species. i am also skeptical about identical twins benefiting parents. there is no interpopulational variance in identicals, but there is in fraternals. that being saying, the data suggest that consumption of milk can increase twinning rates a lot thanks to igf.
4) apes mature very slowly. the investment of having multiples probably is too much for even a pair of individuals. developmentally triplets have many more problems than twins, who have many more problems than singletons. additionally, if you are dividing resources between two offspring of the same age you're increasing the chances that both might die.
5) don't use the term "higher" mammals ;-) there is no such thing.