Arguing over octuplets

Re “Children born of excess,” Opinion, Feb. 11

I wish I had one-tenth the ability to place words so eloquently on paper as Tim Rutten does in his column on Nadya Suleman. It struck a chord with me when I found myself confronted by photos of eight innocent and helpless infants being used to provide their narcissistic mother with 15 minutes of fame.

In a world covered by more than 6 billion human beings, how can there be justification for one young woman to so quickly bring onto this overburdened planet 14 children? The medical community is complicit if it fails to remove from his practice the fertility doctor who implanted the embryos. Clearly he lacks the ethics to be a physician.

Joan M. Decker

Morro Bay

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Concluding his musings on the excesses of Suleman, Rutten expounds that fertility medicine is founded on narcissism and a sense of entitlement. Rutten condemns with one broad brush stroke all those couples who, having failed in their attempts to conceive via the conventional manner, seek help from such sources.

Certainly there are many children available for adoption or awaiting the process in foster homes, but that does not rule out seeking one’s own child. Rutten’s criticism is unwarranted.

Louis H. Nevell

Los Angeles