The California mother of octuplets, Nadya Suleman, has been under public scrutiny for weeks now. One state legislator wants to make sure Missouri doesn’t get its own octo-mom.
Rob Schaaf is a State Representative from St. Joseph, but he’s also a physician. His bill would mandate that when treating infertility, physicians in Missouri would not be allowed to implant more embryos into a human than the current recommendations set forth by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
"It’s just not a good thing to be having that many multiple births if you can avoid it. I’m just simply saying keep the risk down."
So how many is too many? There’s no magic number, he says, but recommendations are based on a series of factors, such as the age of the mother, health risk factors involved, and stage of the embryo.
Rep. Shaaf, a Republican, says it was irresponsible for Suleman’s physician to implant six embryos into her, because he not only put her health at risk, but also her children, and is sticking the California taxpayers with the bill for it all.
Missouri’s not the only state considering legislation that would put limits on embryonic implants; a Senate bill in Georgia would limit the number of embryos a doctor could implant to two for women under 40 years old, and three for women 40 and older.