{"id":696,"date":"2009-02-10T16:11:49","date_gmt":"2009-02-10T16:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/what-rights-should-the-octuple.html"},"modified":"2009-02-10T16:11:49","modified_gmt":"2009-02-10T16:11:49","slug":"what-rights-should-the-octuple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/what-rights-should-the-octuple.html","title":{"rendered":"What Rights Should the Octuplets’ Father Have?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I didn’t know this: the octuplets father apparently, wanted to get married:<\/a><\/p>\n

Angela Suleman said Nadya’s boyfriend was the biological father of all 14 children, but that she refused to marry him.
\n“He was in love with her and wanted to marry her,” she said. “But Nadya wanted to have children on her own.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s one thing for a woman to have an out-of-wedlock birth out of necessity. But to do so when the father wants<\/em> to be married, just so she could have the children “on her own” seems shameful.
\nI suppose this guy must have signed away rights when he donated sperm. But I gather he wasn’t told he was the father until after the fact. Like it or not, the children will view him as the father — so shouldn’t he have had some role in the decision of whether to have the embryos implanted?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I didn’t know this: the octuplets father apparently, wanted to get married: Angela Suleman said Nadya’s boyfriend was the biological father of all 14 children, but that she refused to marry him. “He was in love with her and wanted to marry her,” she said. “But Nadya wanted to have children on her own.” It’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Rights Should the Octuplets' Father Have? - Steven Waldman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/what-rights-should-the-octuple.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Rights Should the Octuplets' Father Have? - Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I didn’t know this: the octuplets father apparently, wanted to get married: Angela Suleman said Nadya’s boyfriend was the biological father of all 14 children, but that she refused to marry him. “He was in love with her and wanted to marry her,” she said. “But Nadya wanted to have children on her own.” It’s…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/what-rights-should-the-octuple.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-10T16:11:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"swaldman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Rights Should the Octuplets' Father Have? - Steven Waldman","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/what-rights-should-the-octuple.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Rights Should the Octuplets' Father Have? 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He's also the author of the Founding Faith: Politics, Providence, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, which has been published by Random House. Before co-founding Beliefnet in 1999, Waldman was a political journalist, serving as National Editor of U.S. News & World Report and National Correspondent for Newsweek. 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