万花筒 2009-02-17&02-18 八胞胎母亲收到死亡威胁（在线收听）

They are only a few weeks old, but these octuplets are already the center of public outrage. Los Angeles police say they plan to investigate death threats against their mom, Nadya Suleman. The 33-year-old single, unemployed mother has been getting hundreds of angry phone calls and e-mails. The criticism is mostly directed at the public assistance Suleman is getting to care for these eight babies as well as these six other children she has conceived through in-vitro fertilization. The big share of that financial burden could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers. Suleman tells NBC’s Today Show she doesn’t consider the public assistance she receives to be welfare and she doesn’t plan to stay on that assistance for long.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 could go up to $2.7 million for the single mother. Suleman’s publicist says she’s living in an undisclosed location and spends time with all of her kids every day. She says she plans to go back to college in the fall to complete her master’s degree in counseling. The young mom says she’ll use additional student loans to support her children along with the school’s daycare center and volunteers. Suleman says she already owes 50,000 dollars in student loans.

Diane Kepley, the Associated Press.

 Note:

in-vitro fertilization: In-vitro fertilization is a method of helping a woman to have a baby in which an egg is removed from one of her ovaries, fertilized outside her body, and then replaced in her womb. (From Collins)