SEPTUPLETS: IT'S A MIRACLE

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Millions of people watched as the extended McCaughey clan, members of the 40-person medical team who assisted in the meticulously planned delivery and, finally, Kenny and Bobbi trooped in front of the TV cameras to bear witness to their pride and joy. For some viewers, the repeated references to God and miracles--by doctors as well as relatives--may have seemed old-fashioned, even corny. But in the face of such passion and tenderness, it was hard for even the most cynical onlooker to remain unmoved.

In Carlisle, where Kenny works as a billing clerk at the local Chevrolet dealership and Bobbi worked at home as a seamstress, the reaction bespoke a neighborliness that seems to have vanished from too much of America. The incoming mayor vowed to find a plot of land for the McCaugheys, who live in a tiny two-bedroom ranch, and local businesses pledged to build a house and fill it with appliances. Chevrolet gave them a 15-seat van. Local banks opened accounts to hold the donations that are already pouring in. And a brigade of neighbors and friends has coordinated meal preparation, laundry, transportation, baby sitting and housecleaning. "They say it takes a village to raise children," says city administrator Neil Ruddy. "We just didn't know it would be our village."

Farther afield, Procter & Gamble, Mott's and Gerber offered the McCaugheys free diapers for life, free apple juice and baby food. Hannibal-LaGrange College in Hannibal, Mo., promised scholarships for all seven children--possibly eliminating at a stroke one of the greatest financial burdens of parenthood. "We were planning to raise our kids on what we earn," said Kenny at a Friday press conference, "but it looks as though help is pouring in."

Seven healthy babies born at once are clearly a testament to the marvelous workings of nature, or God, depending on your point of view. But they are also a powerful demonstration of human ingenuity. The septuplets graphically demonstrate both the promise of modern fertility treatments and their peril. Risky as it was, Bobbi's pregnancy was only the first of many serious hurdles the family might encounter. Because they're nearly always premature, multiple babies have 12 times as great a chance of dying in infancy. If they survive, they face all sorts of potential problems later in life, from cerebral palsy to kidney and bowel problems to blindness to mental retardation.

Even when multiple babies are relatively healthy, the joy they bring is accompanied by the terrible toll--physical, emotional and financial--their care takes on the parents. Says Barbara Luke, a perinatal epidemiologist at the University of Michigan: "It is an injustice to children to be born in litters."

Nonetheless, multiple births are occurring more often now than at any other time in history. Infertility has been on the increase in recent decades, in large part because many women are delaying childbearing in order to pursue their education and careers. In response, doctors have developed a wide variety of treatments--not just infertility drugs but also high-tech methods, including in-vitro fertilization in its many variations. As a result, the number of multiple births has more than quadrupled in the past quarter-century.