What editorial writers are saying about the birth of octuplets

In this new feature, we bring you opinon highlights from around the nation.

Fertility ethics

Doctors have an obligation to weigh the health risks to both mother and child -- and those are considerable with so-called high-multiple births. The guidelines set down by medical organizations affect whether insurance will cover a procedure, but carry little force otherwise. Clearly, the field of fertility treatment needs more than guidelines. -- Los Angeles Times, Feb. 3

14 children!

Beyond a physician's assessment of health risk, though, when and whether to have kids -- and how many -- is an intensely private decision. We don't want doctors playing God, deciding who can have a child and who can't based on family size, income or any other criteria. -- Chicago Tribune, Feb. 3

Octuplet mom took long odds, and dragged the rest of us with her

Almost everyone has an opinion about Suleman's decision to take these odds, and to drag the rest of us along with her, since it is hard to believe this family will not be needing society's help. Let's call it what it is: indulgent, irresponsible and unethical -- on Suleman's part, and on the part of the doctors who helped her get pregnant for the fifth time. -- Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Sun-Sentinel, Feb. 10

Suleman's fertility folly

The good people of California and, indeed all of America, will have to pay for the troubled Ms. Suleman's obsession. Ms. Suleman, after all, filed for bankruptcy in 2008, claiming nearly $1 million in liabilities. The initial cost of her child-bearing obsession will be $3 million to $4 million. -- The Providence (R.I.) Journal, Feb. 10

Medicine run amok

All of the facts surrounding the case have yet to emerge, and some accounts are contradictory, but initial details describe a troubled woman obsessed with having a large family who has placed the health and welfare of herself and her 14 children at huge risk. -- The Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 12