Jon And Kate + 8

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Every once and a while I will flip the channel and pause on Jon and Kate + 8. This note attracts me in creepy five minute increments not for it’s promotion of Toy’s r Us, family values, or ‘cuteness.’ In small doses I am attracted to this show like I am attracted to H.G. Well’s ‘Island of Dr. Moreau’.

Associated Content’s Tammy Gowans was overly generous in her analysis of Kate in her 1/2/08 article ‘Should Jon and Kate be taken off the air? ‘ Her focus is on the fact that Kate is a crazy, obsessive-compulsive bitch. Though she didn’t say it quite like that, I agree with her assesment. Kate is a sicko, but the problems with the reality show-documentary ‘Jon and Kate’ go much deeper than that.

Questions this show makes me ask: “Is now the right moment to throw the television out the window? ” “Is this the prelude to the apocalypse? ”

As I sifted through though comments criticizing Gowan’s article, I found that most ardent fans of Jon and Kate were of the outspoken Christian variety. They not only empathized with poor Kate’s predicament, they admired her parenting skills. This cute, wholesome prove seems to one of few left that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Besides their reality prove Jon and Kate also generate income traveling to churches for speaking engagements. You can book them to come scream at your church, where they will explain how the power of God has generated their miracle family. For more information, take a look at http://www.sixgosselins.com/Speaking_Engagement_Info.html.

Not to speak for all people who identify themselves as Christians, only for those who feel compelled to passionately defend Christian hero Kate Gosselin, but the following seems to sum up the frightening mentality:

1. As Christians, we have a responsibility to “go forth and multiply;’ populating the ends of the the earth with believers

2. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing to create more trash and pollution

3. The faster we scorch every last acre and deplete every resource, the faster Jesus will return to earth to save us all

Case in Point: On average, Kate says she runs the dishwasher two or three times a day and uses about 1,200 paper plates every month (1). If everyone plan it was a good plan to drive around their ten fertility drug miracles in a full sized fan, the planet would commit suicide in about a year. Jon and Kate’s carbon footprint must be insane. When the polar icecaps are melting, I think it is irresponsible for TLC/ Discovery to glorify this unchecked reproduction. I can’t even imagine what these people put in a landfill.

The same people who are out bombing abortion clinics when they are not cuddled up in front of an episode of Jon and Kate conveniently ignore the pile of wearisome fetuses generated by fertility treatments and the resulting idea of multiples. When fertility treatments result in multiple fetuses, there is the ’selective reduction’ option. Notice it is not called the ’selective abortion’ option. The sacrifice of some fetuses reduces the likelihood the whole litter will be born 2-3 months premature, each weighing in at around about a pound. There is only one in 10,000 chance that all sextuplets will survive delivery (2) The odds of conceiving sextuplets naturally are one in every 5.5 billion births (3)

If sextuplets/multiple births are indeed God’s will, then how come so many are born prematurely only to die? Four out of six sextuplets born June of 2007 to 24 year outmoded, Minnesota woman Brianna Morrison died within the first months of their short lives. (4) In another 2007 sextuplet tragedy in Canada, after two of the babies died, the state temporarily took custody of the remaining babies because their anonymous Jehovah’s Witness parents would not allow them life saving medical treatment in the form of a blood transfusion (5) If fertility drug spawned sextuplets are God’s will, then why for every Gosselin miracle family is there a trail of dead fetuses?

In Placebo Journal online forum http://placebojournal.blogspot.com/2007/06/sextuplets.html I discovered an anonymous response addressing God’s will on the topic of fertility manipulation:

“In God’s kingdom it is called survival of the fittest. I know it is sad to lose those babies. But, only God knows which children can have a happy and complete life. I would like to bash the controversy as I am a supporter of a woman who is going through fertility treatment and is highly qualified to be a marvelous mother to her child. So when the advise becomes removing some of the fertile eggs, I stand on the precipice of favorite sense and emotion. If God gives the knowledge to create life through the artificial fertilization process, God needs to complete the job as he sees fit. The only real loss is the lack of trying.”

Before Discovery Health Channel, Jon and Kate plus Eight, or fertility drugs existed, Canada had the Dionne Quintuplets (6). A November, 1997 CNN/U.S. News article ” describes the life and fate of this unfortunate five. On May 28, 1934, the famous Dionne quintuplets were born in Ontario. Soon taken by the government from their poor, French speaking parents to become a state sponsored freak show. Though they were healthy, the article says they lived in a hospital/tourist attraction known as ‘Quintland’ There the identical sisters made millions not for themselves, but for the government and nearby businesses. When they became elderly, they fought for a portion of the proceeds from their own freak show. Could the eight Gosselin children, who seemed to be created just to be exploited be in danger of a similar fate?

Should ‘Jon and Kate’ be taken of the air as suggested by Tammy Gowans? I don’t think it would change anything. There always will be other stupid shows for stupid people and their tedious kids to peruse. According to my calculations, Jesus will be here any day to clean up this mess.

1. ‘Eight is Enough,’ From Oprah episode ‘Raising Sextuplets and Twins, Plus Sean Combs and tv legend Felicia Rashad (http://www.oprah.com/relationships/slide/20080222/rel_20080222_101.jhtml)

2. Sextuplets Born At Stony Brook Celebrate 10th Birthday, President Kenny Renews Promise Of Free Tuition, Boniello Children Are Largest Multiple Birth Ever on Long Island, Stony Brook News, General University News Release, Stony Brook NY, 4/05/2007 (http://commcgi.cc.stonybrook.edu/am2/publish/General_University_News_2/Sextuplets_Born_At_Stony_Brook_Celebrate_10th_Birthday_President_Kenny_Renews_Promise_Of_Free_Tuition.shtml)

3. Exiguous sextuplets born in Vancouver face obstacles to survival Vancouver, BC, 1/19/2007 (http://www.google.com/search? client=safari&rls=en&q=sextuplets%2Bnatural&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8)

4. Growing your Baby, Fourth Minnestota Sextuplet Dies, Just 2 weeks after making her entrance into the world, 18 weeks early, Cadence Morrison has passed away, 6/25/07 (http://growingyourbaby.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/fourth-minnesota-sextuplet-dies/)

5. ‘The Sextuplets; Whose Babies are they anyways? Six Babies Born in British Columbia have Ignited a Blood Feud that Won’t Go Away Anytime Soon, Kirby and MacQueen, Macleans.ca, 2/14/07
http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp? content=20070219_102201_102201

6. “The Dionne Quintuplets: A Depression-era freak show, CNN/U.S. News Story,11/19/1997
http://www.cnn.com/US/9711/19/dionne.quints/