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ABC is following the mounting backlash against the southern California octuplets. Mike von Fremd started to cut through the sentimentality surrounding the story when it broke Monday. Wednesday, in-house physician Timothy Johnson suggested malpractice by the mother's fertility clinic. Now John McKenzie follows up on Los Angeles Times' reports that the still unidentified 33-year-old mother of eight already had six children--aged 7,6,5,3 and twins of 2--when she became pregnant. McKenzie quoted official guidelines that stipulate a maximum of two eggs to be implanted by in-vitro fertilization for a woman of that age. NBC's in-house physician Nancy Snyderman quoted the average hospital cost of caring for premature infants with complicated deliveries at $400,000 per baby: "Multiply that by eight."
