Maggie Rodriguez of The Early Show interviews Amgela Suleman the grandmother of the octuplets. Dr. Michael Kamrava, of the West Coast IVF Clinic, performed the in-vitro fertilization that led to Nadya getting pregnant with the octuplets.
MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ: How much responsibility does the doctor have in this?
ANGELA SULEMAN: As far as I’m concerned, he shouldn’t have done it. But, he’s a doctor. When he’s asked to do something, I guess he doesn’t refuse. …so the doctor actually called and wanted to talk to Nadya, and then, when I realized that was her doctor, I pleaded with him, ‘Please, don’t do this anymore,’ and he promised.
RODRIGUEZ: Promised you?
ANGELA: [She smiles.] Fell on deaf ears.
RODRIGUEZ: What did he say?
ANGELA: Yes, I realize that, you know, she shouldn’t have that many. She’s a single mother, tah dah dah,’ and he’ll not do it anymore. And yet, next year, she had another one, and another one.
RODRIGUEZ: And now eight more.
ANGELA: Yeah.
RODRIGUEZ: At what point did you tell her to stop having babies?
ANGELA: I told her she needed to stop, because I wouldn’t be able to help her, because there was not enough room in the house. And, for some reason, she couldn’t. I guess that’s what happens when a person is obsessive compulsive.
RODRIGUEZ: What would she say to your objections?
ANGELA: She said that she’ll take care of it, and she won’t have any more. And then you see, laughs, but she is pregnant again and again.
RODRIGUEZ: Is she sick?
ANGELA: She doesn’t seem sick. She was brilliant in her studies. But as far as everyday life is concerned, she is just not really thinking things through sometimes.
RODRIGUEZ: Do you blame yourself?
ANGELA: I did, but then, I thought, ‘You know, what could I have done different?’ I was a loving mother and she had a loving father. So, I don’t know.
RODRIGUEZ: When did this start? This obsession with having children?
ANGELA: When she was a teenager.
RODRIGUEZ: What do you remember?
ANGELA: I remember that she always loved to be around children. She loved to talk about having a large family. Then when she was older, she finally realized she could not have children the regular route, so did she start having in vitro.
RODRIGUEZ: Did you support her? Having a child as a single mother?
ANGELA: I was really from a different school. I was brought up differently - very strict. But I wanted to be, you know supportive because once it’s done - you can’t undo it.
Not the first one but every one after you could have prevented.
RODRIGUEZ: In other countries there are limits to the numbers of the embryos a doctor can implant. Do you hope that a change in the lawas comes about because of your daughter’s case?
ANGELA: I hope so. There should be maybe a law to forbid a doctor to do this. However, she said she didn’t want these embryos killed, you know, done away with … Those were her children, and she wanted to try and just use the rest.
RODRIGUEZ: Let’s talk about the others - how are they? What is their feeling about the new babies?
ANGELA: Well, they were actually asked and they didn’t want them. [Laughs.]
RODRIGUEZ: They said they didn’t want them? Why?
ANGELA: They’re pretty smart. Maybe they thought they would not get the attention they really deserved.
RODRIGUEZ: Is that a concern for you?
ANGELA: Yes. But as long as I am able, I am going to help out.
RODRIGUEZ: So it’s you, the six kids and Nadya in the house?
ANGELA: Yes, but there grandfather is also helping out right now.
RODRIGUEZ: And what about Nadya?
ANGELA: Nadya’s not working right now. She gets some disability. She was getting disability because she was injured on her job. But that’s also gone.
RODRIGUEZ: So now she has no money - you have very little.
ANGELA: Very limited amount.
RODRIGUEZ: And now you have eight more.
ANGELA: Yeah.
RODRIGUEZ: What will you do?
ANGELA: I don’t know. I haven’t thought about that yet. But I hope something will come up, because lots of neighbors have been very generous and nice.
RODRIGUEZ: Does she realize the huge responsibility this is?
ANGELA: I’m sure she’s realizing it more and more.
RODRIGUEZ: Is there any sense of remorse for her?
ANGELA: I didn’t hear it because those babies are here now, and it’s too late, really, to have remorse. But she loves children. What can I say? She probably should have been a teacher like I was!
RODRIGUEZ: Have you been surprised by the hate mail and the death threats?
ANGELA: Yes, It was kind of scary.
RODRIGUEZ: What was the scariest thing you read?
ANGELA: What should happen to her - how she should be hacked up. This is a mother who’s trying to take care of her children, and she’s a loving mother, so I don’t think anything should happen to her, heaven forbid, you know — because then, who’s gonna take care of all these children?
RODRIGUEZ: If you could speak directly to the people who are tormenting ou and your daughter, what would you say to them?
ANGELA: Please stop it, you know. There’s no reason to do this. Because it’s, it’s not necessary. She is going to have a tough life, with all these children. She is going to be punished. She believes in God so, you know, God is gonna take care of all this.
RODRIGUEZ: How do you think she will be punished?
ANGELA: Well, can you imagine, to be a single mother and having 14 children. It’s a horrendous job. She wants to do a good job and she’s been doing a good job. It’s going to be very difficult, to say the least.
Her children are the one who have been punished. They spoke up and said they didn’t want any more. And God is as much as an excuse as the human detonators use in the Arab world to sanction their brand of evil. She has sentenced each one of these kids to a life of neglect. That is child abuse. Period. God had nothing to do with sending her these children. She went to a lab and had them implanted out of her own selfishness. Even the children figured that out.
***
(1-30) Octuplets: Ethics of fertility treatment?
(1-30) Octuplets: What is really going on?
(2-9) Octuplets: Should not go home with that woman
(2-9) Octuplets: Octuplets: already filthy house unfit for children (pix)
(2-23) Octuplets: Mother vs grandmother caught on tape
(2-24) Octuplets: Cosmetic surgery, IVF, food stamps, disability, bankruptcy & foreclosure
(2-24) Octuplets: Mother before/after plastic surgery & Angelina Jolie (pix)
(2-25) Octuplets: Grandfather on Oprah daughter “not mentally complete”
(2-25) Octuplets: Hospital questioning her ability to care for children
(2-26) Octuplets: Video of inside the home
(2-26) Octuplets: Body language mother vs grandmother video (Part 1)
(2-26) Octuplets: Body language mother vs grandmother video (Part 2)
(2-27) Octuplets: Man claiming to be sperm donor
(2-27) Octuplets: Grandmother on The Early Show (Part 1)
(2-27) Octuplets: Grandmother on The Early Show (Part 2)
(2-27) Octuplets: Grandmother on The Early Show (Part 3)
(2-27) Octuplets: Grandmother’s first interview (Feb 9th)
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