Death threats send mother of octuplets into hiding

California’s octuplets mother, already jobless and receiving food stamps, has gone into hiding with her six older children because of death threats, her spokesman has admitted.

Nadya Suleman, 33, has come under mounting public ridicule for expanding her already large family via fertility treatments that led to the birth of six boys and two girls at a Los Angeles-area hospital on January 26.

That criticism has mushroomed as it was reported that she was divorced, living with her parents, unemployed for several years, receiving disability cheques for three of her children — one of whom is autistic — and collecting nearly $500 (e389) a month in food stamps.

She acknowledged those circumstances in a series of NBC television interviews but insisted she was “not living off any taxpayer money” and that assistance she receives is temporary.

Suleman, who was working toward an advanced degree in counselling, said she owes close to $50,000 in student loans, which also are her sole source of non-government income.

For the past few days, Suleman and her six older children, aged from two to seven, have moved into “what we are referring to as an undisclosed location,” said Michael Furtney, a PR consultant working for the family.

Furtney said Suleman and the PR firm have been deluged with hostile telephone and email messages in recent days, some of them containing threats of violence and death.

“The bulk of them just rail against her being... a person who’s taking advantage of the system, and they just go from there,” Furtney said.

A big share of the financial burden of raising the 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California’s taxpayers, compounding the public furore in a state already billions of dollars in the red.

The hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state’s medical assistance programme, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.

Word of the public assistance has stoked the furore over Suleman’s decision to have so many children by having embryos implanted in her womb.

“It appears that, in the case of the Suleman family, raising 14 children takes not simply a village but the combined resources of the county, state and federal governments,” LA Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote. He called Suleman’s story “grotesque.”

On the internet, bloggers rained insults on Suleman, calling her an “idiot,” criticising her decision to have more children when she couldn’t afford the ones she had and suggesting she be sterilised.

She was also berated on talk radio, where listeners accused her of manipulating the system and being an irresponsible mother.

Furtney urged understanding. “She has been under a tremendous pressure no one could be prepared for,” he said.