The disciplinary hearing of the doctor who treated OctoMom, Nadya Suleman, gives some revealing insights into the way fertility specialists operate. Testifying in support of Dr Michael Kamrava this week, a famous Beverly Hills colleague, Dr Jeffrey Steinberg, told the court that there was no generally accepted number of embryos to be implanted. "He was trying very hard to help this woman get pregnant. I can't fault his judgment," Steinberg said. "I can question maybe how aggressive he can be, but again, I wasn't in the room with the patient."

In fact, Dr Steinberg went on, many of his patients ask for a large number of embryos to be implanted because they want large families. "In our eyes, those embryos belong to the patients and they have to make decisions about them," Steinberg said.

And if there are too many? "Fetal reduction remains as our safety net with in vitro fertilization," Steinberg said. ~ Los Angeles Times, Nov 17