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Saturday, February 21, 2009

Selfishness at Root of Peanut Scandal, In-Vitro Tragedy

By Diane Dimond
Of the Journal
      Our country is built on a foundation of laws designed to keep order in our society. Some of these laws are passed by legislatures; others are society's laws, the ethical and moral laws that guide us.
       Two stories playing out in the news these days underscore the importance of this very basic cornerstone of American life.
       The California single mother of six, whose addiction to test tube babies caused her to give birth to eight more, and the president of the Peanut Corporation of America, from which salmonella-tainted products were shipped, have something in common. When faced with monumental choices, they chose badly. They thought of themselves first — their happiness or their paycheck — with no regard to how others would be impacted by their lousy decisions.
       To make matters worse, those entities we rely on to protect us from the foolish (even criminal) decisions of others failed us.
       Let's deal with 33-year-old Nadya Suleman first. No husband, no job, no house of her own, her parents with whom she lives have had to declare bankruptcy under the burden and three of her six in-vitro-conceived children have disabilities. She decided to go back for even more in-vitro fertilizations!
       Her doctor presumably knew her situation and his own profession's guidelines, but he implanted way too many embryos. Eight more human beings brought into the world because, as Nadya put, it she longed for a “huge family” to make up for the loneliness of being an only child.
       Geez, I am an only child, but I never thought of giving birth to my own nursery school full of children!
       Suleman said she gets no welfare. We now know that's not true. She declared she'll raise all 14 of her children alone. We know that's impossible. Suleman must sense the public assistance spigot may dry up, as she's started a Web site for donations. I for one refuse to help pay for her delusional behavior.
       Maybe it would be better if the state took custody of Suleman's babies and placed them with people who can actually afford children.
       Next, let's consider the case of the peanut company CEO, Stewart Parnell, another fantasy thinker. According to several congressional witnesses, and corroborating e-mails written by Parnell himself, he knew there was deadly salmonella in PCA products.
       But instead of destroying the tainted items and sanitizing his plants, Parnell made the choice to do a little “lab shopping” to see if a different laboratory would come up with a different test result. Really bad choice.
       In the meantime, Parnell's e-mails reveal bitter complaints about how the company is losing money. “We need to discuss this,” Parnell wrote to his plant manager. “The time lapse … is costing us huge $$$$$ …”
       Here is a man faced with the prospect that his product could kill people and he's more worried about the bottom line, and his own paycheck. Later, via another e-mail, Parnell orders the questionable products be “let loose” to schools, nursing homes and manufacturers who make cookies, candy, crackers, ice cream, granola bars and other products Americans gobble up.
       The result was deadly. Nearly 600 people were made so sick they reported it to health officials. To date, nine deaths are linked to Parnell's salmonella tainted products. Plaintiff's lawyers are lining up to file suit against the corporation, which just conveniently filed for bankruptcy. Prosecutors are researching whether to file negligent homicide charges against Parnell.
       Now, may I ask, where was the Food and Drug Administration, which admits reports of salmonella at PCA plants stretched back to last summer? Where were the federally mandated inspections?
       And in the case of Octo-Mom, as Nadya Suleman is now nicknamed, where was the medical community? Unlike other countries we don't have legislation limiting in-vitro procedures. Lawmakers have left it up to the doctors to police themselves. Nice job, guys.
       One could argue that the actions of both Parnell and Suleman were criminal, one crime against consumers, the other against tiny, incubated babies struggling to live.
       I am the last one to call for more government regulation. But the FDA is already in place! The laws are there, the salmonella reports at the PCA plant were long standing. Someone paid by taxpayers failed to be our backstop. I'd like to know who.
       And, the medical community already has its guidelines firmly in place. The American Society For Reproductive Medicine concludes no more than two embryos should be implanted at a time in a woman Suleman's age. Won't even one medical association stand up and publicly condemn the doctor who caused these eight babies to be born?
       Too bad we can't pass laws against short-sighted stupidity.
       www.DianeDimond.net — e-mail to Diane@DianeDimond.net
       

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