It takes no more than two minutes within meeting Michael Furtney to sense the compassion he exudes both as a person and as a publicist.
That feeling radiates in the Pepperdine professor’s belief that “anyone with a grain of compassion” should feel for the situation in which Nadya Suleman – the now household name who delivered eight miracle babies Jan. 26 – and her family have been placed.
Compassion played a part in Furtney’s professional decision to join his wife in representing Suleman as her publicists just days after the birth of the famous octuplets despite a mixed public reaction to the in vitro fertilization (IVF) utilized in the process.
Compassion also reflected in his willingness to help an unmarried and unemployed mother for free.
Yet ultimately it was the passion of thousands of strangers from around the nation – the hateful kind of passion found in unspeakable phone messages and violent words – that led Furtney and his wife to drop Suleman as a client last weekend.
Furtney who teaches public relations courses at Pepperdine described the ordeal as a “once-in-a-lifetime experience yet he never expected what he deemed a good deed” to unravel the way it has.
“[My wife and I] just felt it wasn’t going to get better he said. The longer we were associated with Nadya the more the focus would be on us because they accused us of being slimy spin-doctor press agents who would do anything for a buck.”
A Web site filled with such cruel words was initially created for supportive messages and monetary donations for Suleman. The 33-year-old Whittier resident already had six children using a sperm donor when she gave birth to the octuplets from the same donor at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower located about an hour southeast of Malibu.
Ordinarily the birth of a child is a time for joy and celebration. But in Suleman’s case the joy in her life has been overshadowed by attacks aimed at not only her and her 14 children but at Killeen Furtney Group as well. The Brentwood-based public relations firm is led by Furtney and his wife Joann Killeen who sits as president of the company.
“I guess I would put most of the messages we’ve received in the category of angry taxpayers Furtney said. But there were several – in fact dozens – that threatened everything from outright murder to wishing that we would all rot in hell and that the best thing for the world would be that Nadya and the babies just die.”
Another Furtney said wished all involved would contract cancer. None though quite compared to a harsh message that suggested Suleman’s uterus be ripped out.
“It’s just hard to comprehend how people could want to have that kind of terrible act be performed on anyone he said, shaking his head.
More than 60,000 messages – most of them negative – have found their way to Furtney and Killeen. When the situation quickly grew to unmanageable proportions, Furtney and his wife decided to talk with threat officers of the Los Angeles Police Department.
They said we absolutely can’t ignore them because even though 99 percent of them are not serious threats it’s that other 1 percent we need to be concerned with Furtney said. It’s fairly sobering when you think after a long life and career that there’s somebody out there who wishes you dead.”
Furtney who has four of his own children and eight grandchildren said he never once expected to receive such a profound negative response.
“We figured that because this was such a rare occurrence plus the fact that it’s a remarkable situation Nadya would be seen if not as an appealing subject for stories then at least as someone people could sympathize with he said.
Furtney and Killeen’s involvement with Suleman began when a good friend who works in Kaiser Permanente’s public relations department asked the couple if they wanted to do pro bono work for a patient. The decision to help the mother, Furtney said, was almost automatic.
We thought it was an opportunity to help somebody who obviously wasn’t in a position to go out on her own and find someone to help her he explained. Both Joann and I believe some people deserve help whenever they’re dealing with a circumstance that affects more than just the individual. And in this case it affected eight brand new babies as well as the six she had at home.”
It does not take Einstein or even a calculator to realize eight plus six makes 14 children for Suleman. It’s a number Furtney describes as “almost incomprehensible but it’s also a number that is causing quite the stir around the nation from an ethical standpoint.
In vitro fertilization, which is responsible for that magical No. 14, is a process by which egg cells are fertilized by sperm outside the womb. The procedure was first done in the 1970s and has since allowed thousands of women unable to give birth a chance to experience motherhood.
Dr. Don Shores, a longtime professor of Communication Ethics and Values, recently spent two hours with his graduate ethics class discussing discourse ethics, particularly looking at a case study written by two students entitled The Discourse of a Dedicated Mother.”
The mother spoken of was Suleman and Shores explained his class left the discussion still disagreeing with her actions but able to better understand how such an improbable situation unfolds.
“Discourse ethics involves looking at the purpose for discourse Shores said. We looked at how we talk about this incident and what motivates us to talk about it in certain ways – judgmentally or objectively. And is there an ethical way to look at this situation?”
“Yes” was the general response to Shores’ final question and he found an interesting disparity in ideas from the class.
“There was one student who thought we should enact strict laws similar to adoption laws for in vitro fertilization he said. And then others said ‘Wait you’re going to take away your right to have children?”
Suleman’s decision to try for another baby came after the birth of her sixth child when she was informed she still had unused fertilized eggs. In June of 2008 to avoid what she considered the disposing of life she opted to have one more treatment to implant the remaining eggs. Suleman was implanted with six eggs despite the norm being two or three and she hoped to at least receive one child – two at the most.
“We saw the one-in-a-million chance turn into eight children in this case Shores said.
But Furtney said Suleman does not bear ethical responsibility for the decision.
She went into the procedure with the expectation she might get one baby maybe two on the extreme outside he said. If there are any ethical issues to be examined it’s being done presently through the state medical organization which is investigating the fertilization center and her doctor.”
Shores agreed with that notion stating he believes Suleman has received such negative attention “because this has been allowed to happen not because of her necessarily.”
“If this hadn’t happened during a severe economic downturn it might have been viewed a bit different too he continued. But now with everyone feeling the pinch and feeling like we’re going to have to pay for those babies that’s a whole different view.”
Still his class pondered why Suleman even wanted one more.
“I don’t think she’s crazy Shores said. I think she just needs some solid counseling to help her accept who she is and what her situation is. Being a man I don’t understand what she went through in the sense of not being able to have children and wanting children badly. Two or three kids – that’s all anybody needs.
“I think it’s almost like being a shopaholic. One more thing one more thing. You just want one more. And I don’t know whether the question has been asked or not but what happens if she comes back and asks for another?”
The issue can be viewed from every which way and Furtney knows the sides of each angle. At the end of the day though the publicist simply sees Suleman as ”
pleasant and very positive.”
“She’s very bright and is really committed to finishing her masters at California State Northridge and some day getting her Ph.D. he said. I think it’s unfair to judge her harshly because she’s a single mother. There are a lot of single mothers out there and I don’t think many people appreciate the difficulties they go through. I hope maybe to some extent she might be a voice and reminder of that.”
Furtney says he doesn’t see Suleman and her bundle as the next “Jon and Kate Plus 8 but hopes the positive feedback Jon and Kate Gosselin – television’s popular parents of sextuplets and twins – receive will hopefully catch up to Suleman.
The encouraging thing to some extent is that we’ve heard from a lot of really nice people Furtney said. I got a call this week from a lovely woman from Dayton Ohio who is not well-off but she’s going to send the kids $10 a month as long as she can.”
As a publicist Furtney knows there is no such thing as privacy anymore. That much is clear when looking at a woman who turned famous overnight because of a larger-than-life belly. As a human though he’s wondering where society’s compassion went.
“I’m disappointed he said. I never would have thought such a reaction could come from this many people.”