Don't Make Me Slam You Into A Wall

When we owned our insurance agency, it was not unusual to have people come in to buy insurance reeking of alcohol. It also wasn't unusual that the drunkards would already have one or two DUIs on their record.

I wouldn't insure them. Even Greg wouldn't insure them when they were obviously still drinking and driving. I cannot tell you how many times we kicked people out of our office. Sometimes I would do it subtly by pretending I couldn't find the rate I quoted them, and apologize while walking them to the door.

Other times subtle tactics didn't work. I can remember a particularly vulgar drunk that called me every vile name you can think of and refused to leave. Greg would always let me handle things on my own, but after the guy got in my face, Greg came thundering up to the front of our store and "helped" him outside.

After Greg slammed his head into the wall, he threw him out the door while screaming, "Don't you ever hit her again!", just to cover our bases in case the cops came.

When the drunk picked himself up off the ground, he sat outside our door for a few minutes bellowing, "You're setting me up, man. You're setting me up!"

Greg informed me that if the cops actually came, he might have to punch me in the head so we wouldn't get sued. This was a pretty average day for us.

Now I could have legally insured that guy. He was eligible for license reinstatement and I could have taken his money. I could have insured every drunk who walked through our door. But as a professional, I felt I had a moral and ethical obligation to not help someone like that get back on the road.

I wouldn't have been able to sleep at night.

You would think doctors would hold themselves to the same ethical and moral standards as a lowly insurance agent. For instance, if you were to go into a plastic surgeon's office after dozens and dozens and dozens of surgeries, and you looked like this,



wouldn't you think a doctor, a professional, would just say, "NO! NO! NO! I won't do any more surgeries on you. You are sick. You have mental problems. I can't help you. You are beyond help."?

Then maybe the doctor would slam your head into the wall before throwing you out of his office. Because making someone look like an alien is WRONG. It shouldn't have to be a law. As a doctor, you just shouldn't do it. You shouldn't take the money. You should just know Better.

In case you have been living under a rock this week, you might not have heard that the mother who gave birth to the octuplets is single, lives at home, has THREE sets of twins already, and worked at a fertility clinic. She conceived all of her children via sperm donor and IVF, and I repeat, has three sets of twins already. She now has fourteen children under the age of seven.

They don't even make a pill for that kind of crazy.

It's clear she has some serious mental issues, where she's actually trying to collect children like one might hoard cats. Her own mother says there was no stopping her. She had it in her head that she was going to have twelve children and she was going to have them no matter what.

So what I want to know is where was the professional in this mess? Where was the doctor, who when asked to put back all eight embryos, should have said, "NO! NO! NO! I won't do any more transfers for you. You are sick. You have mental problems. I can't help you. You are beyond help."?

Then he should have slammed her head into the wall and threw her out of his office.

It shouldn't have to be a law. Fertility doctors should just know better. They should hold themselves to a higher moral and ethical code. You shouldn't put eight embryos into someone who clearly can get pregnant over and over and over.

You shouldn't do it because it's WRONG. It's just WRONG.

But you know what? It happens all the time. We just don't hear about it, because then the doctor scrambles and talks the woman into selective reduction. There is no regulation on the fertility industry in America. Unlike all the other industrialized countries in the world, in America, if you could find a doctor who is willing, you could put back 20 embryos if you wanted to.

I say it's time for regulation. If it takes an extreme example like this to call attention to the entire industry of ART, then so be it. It's clear by the number of women coerced into selective reduction in America, and the continuing explosion in high order multiple births, that doctors are unwilling and incapable of policing themselves.

There must be a limit set for the number of embryos allowed during a transfer.

I never thought I'd say that. But there it is.

Maybe Greg really did punch me in the head and I just don't remember.