The family says they just want to live a normal life in their Christian home, but they have a media relations representative, and they've accepted dozens of gifts on behalf of their children, announced in regular press conferences. The McCaughey case raises many questions. The case also raises questions about personal responsibility. The McCaughey's beliefs prevented them from having the selective abortion of some of the septuplets that could have improved the health of the remaining children as well as allowing the parents some control over the size of their family. But their actions created a situation in which they require the assistance of their community in order to survive as a family.
Larger questions abound as well.
Infertility has loomed large in our consciousness at least throughout the history of the United States, and has usually been bound up in ideas about womanhood and participation in society. Infertility has shifted in the minds of Americans from a chiefly spiritual and social issue to a largely medical one, and the advent of drugs like pergonal have even made it possible to take a pill to get a baby. Opinions will be printed in the December 15 issue.