Legislature should stick to our business

Some controversies are just too compelling for publicity-seeking politicians to ignore. That’s the only explanation for at least one bill recently introduced in the Georgia Legislature: a hastily put together proposal to legally proscribe the number of embryos that a fertility doctor may implant in the womb of an eager mom-to-be.

You know the controversy, right? The so-called OctuMom — Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to octuplets in southern California in January — has generated a cottage industry of instant experts on fertility, motherhood and medical ethics. And Georgia state Sen. Ralph Hudgens (R-Hull) couldn’t resist adding his thimble-full of expertise.

CYNTHIA TUCKER
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“I think it’s totally immoral,” Hudgens told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I think the doctor ought to be prosecuted, and the woman should give [the children] up for adoption.”

You’d think Hudgens would have pressing issues closer to home to which he might devote his time. Like dozens of other states, Georgia is struggling with a deep budget deficit, rising unemployment and an imploding construction industry. Entire neighborhoods are in foreclosure; banks are going belly-up; hospitals are hard-pressed.

Aren’t those issues complicated enough to occupy a conscientious public official? Does he really need to wade into the complex and emotionally fraught topic of in-vitro fertilization?

It’s not that Suleman’s excesses have been ignored. Her case is already attracting attention from the proper authorities, who have started a healthy (if belated) debate over wayward fertility clinics and their costs, financial and moral. The California Medical Board has started an investigation of Michael Kamrava, Suleman’s fertility doctor, who apparently ignored all guidelines for best practices.

Last year, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine adopted guidelines advocating the transfer of only one embryo for women under 35 (Suleman is 33) and no more than two for any woman, except in extraordinary circumstances. Those extraordinary circumstances include older women, for whom the guidelines permit more embryos — but no more than five regardless of age or other factors. The guidelines followed years of pressure from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and medical ethicists, who cited the risks of multiple births.

Multiple babies increase all sorts of health risks — infant mortality, low birth weights and long-term disabilities. The births bring enormous hospital costs; many of those children, including some of Suleman’s octuplets, are likely to have lifetime health needs that will require expensive medical care.

Moreover, it’s clear to any middle schooler than Suleman is a deeply troubled, emotionally fragile woman who didn’t need to have additional children, much less eight more. Her narcissism is exceeded only by her blithe denial of the harm she has inflicted on helpless little ones. A doctor who would agree to implant multiple embryos in her womb is in the same professional category with the plastic surgeon who continued to perform operations on Michael Jackson. Let’s hope those with the authority to oversee Kamrava’s practice impose stiff sanctions.

But none of this means that the Georgia Legislature, with its, ah, limited expertise in such matters, ought to get involved. Hopefully, even Georgia’s often-shameless legislators will see they are in over their heads — the American Society for Reproductive Medicine issued a statement denouncing Hudgens’ proposal — and stall the bill in study committee, where it presently resides.

But the bill will likely resurface again. Hudgens’ bill joins a passel of other proposals in the Georgia Legislature that would clumsily regulate assisted fertility in an appeal to ultra-conservative constituents who oppose abortion and stem cell research. Those constituents will likely demand another hearing.

Perhaps the most puzzling thing about Hudgens and his sanctimonious supporters is that they haven’t shown much interest in the welfare of children already in this world. They might do a little more to help Georgia’s poor and working-class children get better access to health care and affordable housing and college educations if they care so much.

Really, lots of folks are already working on the Suleman problem. Hudgens ought to turn his attention closer to home.

• Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor.

Her column appears Sunday.