A fierce ethical and medical debate has been raging in the United States after one woman gave birth to eight tiny babies in California on January 26.
Thirty-three-year-old Nadya Suleman's extraordinary multiple pregnancy was the result of fertility treatment.
She had already had six other kids, all under eight years-old, also by IVF treatment.
While the frail and tiny newborns - six boys and two girls - have beaten past odds and survived, tough questions are being asked about the use of fertility technology in this way.
Under intense scrutiny is the conduct of the physicians who agreed to carry out a procedure that placed the mother and babies at immense risk.
Guidelines issued 10 years ago by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine state that a woman of Ms Suleman's age should have no more than two embryos implanted.
One U.S. professor of obstetrics and gynecology has called the decision to implant eight embryos in a woman who already has six children as "insensitive and ignorant."
The octuplets were born nine-and-a-half weeks early. And, doctors have warned that this places them at significantly greater risk of longterm health problems ranging from lung disease, neurological and gastro-intestinal complications to blindness.
Adding to the ethical debate are Ms Suleman's personal circumstances. She is unmarried with no partner, few resources and lives with her parents.
Ms Suleman's mother has severely criticised her behaviour in the media, saying she has been "obsessed" with having babies.
For her part, Ms Suleman has defended her actions, saying in a U.S. television interview that she was counting on God to help provide for her 14 children.
While she and the octuplets are now celebrities, she has acknowledged that she is "struggling" financially, although she has hired a publicist.
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