So, we ought to let the little girl starve to death because she had the audacity to be born?? You certainly are waving the banner of a true conservative. Let her starve. Let her starve. Let her starve.

I don’t see how Octomom and this case are the same regarding benefits. Octomom had no father; she wasn’t having the child out of love for someone, she just wanted more children.
Perhaps part of Beeler’s reasoning for having a child was that her daughter would be entitled to the benefits of her father. I’m assuming that Beeler’s husband was aware that his wife hoped to conceive their child one day and that this wasn’t an easy decision for either of these people.
What happens to his benefits if he has no heir? Do they merely go back into a pot? Personally, I believe the courts made the right decision. Unfortunately I also think it will open the door to all sorts of unscrupulous activity and individuals that will find a way to take advantage of it.
Whatever the outcome, I hope that Ms. Beeler and her daughter find peace and love and can honor the memory of the man taken so young.

So she wouldn’t get social security benefits just for being his widow, she has to be the mother of his child to get them? I don’t really understand the American social services policies, so just from the basics, I’d say that was a poor decision from the courts. She knew her husband was dead when she was impregnated, as you point out.

@ Bluster – if her mother is in such a terrible position that her child faces starvation, why in the heck did she decide to get IVF and go it alone? No one is saying that the child should be left to starve; however maybe the government (read: YOU) shouldn’t be paying for “the loss of a family wage earner” who didn’t actually earn wages for the family while he was alive.

Bluster, IVF costs an average of $35,000 per delivery in younger women, and over $100,000 in women over 40. I don’t think this little girl was going to starve without social security benefits. On the other hand, as PlumbLucky pointed out, had the father of a poor family died while his wife was pregnant, that little girl really would have needed the benefits.

Taking a snippet from “Jenny Tries Too Hard”…he was not alive to conceive such a child. The child was conceived posthumously. Thus, I think that this was his widow’s choice to conceive knowing if she could/could not care for the child.

alison, who else would stand to inherit but Mrs. Beeler? With privatized social security, the money Mr. Beeler paid in would’ve gone to her, and she could’ve then used it to support Brynn—Brynn wouldn’t inherit directly from her father, because, of course she wasn’t concieved when he wrote his estate was dealt with. She would inherit indirectly, with her dad’s money going to her mom, and her mom using it to concieve, support, and save for her.

Also, if Social Security is meant to be a “pot” to be divided up by the government, then the government should call it a tax. But they don’t. They insist that this is a savings plan; that’s why if you never had taxable income, your survivors are not entitled to any SS money.

The bottom line is that Mr.Beeler (and his employer) earned money, and paid into what the government touts as a lockbox, a savings plan for his retirement and his widow, and then decided his widow didn’t deserve the full amount Mr. Beeler paid (and the matching funds his employer paid) because she’s under 55 and hadn’t had Mr.Beeler’s baby, yet. I deal with people hoodwinked by SS every darn day in my job and it stinks. Sad thing is, the Beelers were apparently people of some means, if they were able to bank Mr. Beeler’s sperm and go ahead with the IVF while the people I usually see hurt by this program are low-income people who would’ve put the money scalped from the loved one’s paychecks to good use. Instead, some nice man who dies at 50 with grown kids and a 45-year-old wife often has no idea that all SS will deem his widow of “deserving” is the piddly $300 that barely pays me to help them pick a casket, no matter how much he has paid in. Oh, and when I try to sell these folks pre-needs plans for funeral arrangements, I’m not even allowed to mention how little the SS death benefit is because that’s “predatory”.

Social Security is an outright scam and another case of the government thinking that the people are too stupid to save and spend their own money.

It’s the wrong decision for all childless widows and widowers.

Did the court follow the law as it stands? That’s gray. Is the law as it stands fair and reasonable? Absolutely not. He probably paid $300 a month into a “lockbox” for his own benefit his entire working life. Do you really think it’s fair that the gov can tell her “here’s a tiny fraction of the money we forced your husband to ‘save’, have a nice day”? I sure don’t.

I cannot think of a more appropriate name for Jenny. Overreaching in the extreme.

The two cases are NOT at all the same in comparison. Octomom was on SS DISABILITY collecting payment for an injury she claims was at work. How the hell she duped SS into continuing to pay her while she was so disabled as to not be able to work, but yet could haul her ass down to have fertility treatments for who knows how long, whilst caring for the brood she already had & then carring 8 more…well, is not only ridiculous, it speaks to just HOW badly cases are determined & monitored. I am happy one judge had the sense to grant Jenny her father’s earned benefit. AND- I hope Octo was made to PAY BACK all the money she ripped off SS, while so many wait YEARS for benefits while REALLY disabled.