Posted on 11/10/2011 10:42:39 PM PST by ReformationFan
JERUSALEM, November 10, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - “Wrongful life” lawsuits, in which doctors are held liable for not discovering fetal abnormalities that might have prompted parents to abort their child, have become so common in Israel that the government has set up a committee to investigate the issue, New Scientist reports.
According to magazine, wrongful life claims are more prevalent in Israel where a higher rate of genetic disorders caused by consanguineous (connected by kinship) marriages has fueled a “pro-genetic testing culture.” The county has seen an estimated 600 wrongful cases since the first in 1987.
While similar lawsuits in the United States and Canada are often brought by the parents of disabled children, it is common in Israel for the children themselves to demand compensation for the fact that they were not killed in-utero.
Asaf Posner, a medical malpractice lawyer who sits on the government’s Matza committee which is charged with investigating the issue, has obtained judgments averaging around 4.5 million shekels (about $1 million U.S. Dollars) for clients with spina bifida and cystic fibrosis.
Posner defends the lawsuits, arguing that the medical profession would “become corrupt” without criticism.
Rabbi Avraham Steinberg, a medical ethicist at Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, disagrees. Steinberg has criticized the lawsuits as psychologically damaging.
“I find it very difficult to understand how parents can go on the witness stand and tell their children ‘it would have been better for you not to have been born,” said Steinberg, who also sits on the Matza committee.
Steinberg claims that some malpractice lawyers are travelling to small communities around the country where inbreeding is more common in search of potential clients.
He also noted that the prevalence of such lawsuits has caused doctors to overstate the likelihood that an unborn child may have a disability, possibly driving an increase in the number of abortions.
“More testing means more false positives – and that means more abortions, because geneticists don’t always know if results indicating the possibility of chromosomal abnormalities are meaningful. I’d like to see a study of aborted fetuses to see how many are diseased,” he said.
Huh????
Perhaps all those successfully suing could be given a free death penalty.
That’s what I’d offer them. I bet none of them would take it.
What the hell is wrong with these Israelis? Have they lost their moral compass? Forgotten that life is a miracle and gift from God?
I believe Jewish faith doesn’t recognize life beginning until the newborn’s first breath. I’m sure I’ll be corrected if wrong here on F/R.
Many Jews don’t do prenatal testing; they do premarital testing - if both man and woman carry the genes for Tay-Sachs or some others that Jews carry - they don’t marry.
I think they just want money.
“I think they just want money.”
Hey, don’t we all.
But if they are suing because they are angry that they are alive, it would seem a free death would “make things right.”
Barack Obama should sue for being born a tricky moslem of low IQ.
“Barack Obama should sue for being born a tricky moslem of low IQ.”
I am not convinced he has a low IQ. I just think he is messed up.
I am also not convinced he is a muslim. I suppose he has sympathies.
It’s really hard to believe this story.
Other than being shocked that they even allow abortions in YHVH’s land, I really don’t know what else to say other than the curse of Deut 28 is in full force and thriving at the maximum levels.
The article said nothing about Jews, it spoke of Isra’elis and not all Isra’elis are Jews.
You said...
“Huh????”
My thoughts exactly. I am missing something in this article but I cannot seem to find out what
Suing because you weren’t aborted is stupidity of galactic proportions. In fact it’s so stupid, I wonder when Nancy Pelosi will do it.
If he loses to Herman Cain in 2012 he could sue his mother for being too white.
For starters -
.........I am not convinced he has a low IQ
Needs a teleprompter.
Corpsmen.
.........I am also not convinced he is a muslim.
BO: my muslim faith
GS: you mean your christian faith
Mom has been dead for quite a few years now.
BO’s mom being “alive challenged” is no excuse, in a politically correct world! He, still, needs her to vote for his re-election, on November ‘12.
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