Parents Sue Doctors for 'Wrongful Birth' of Disabled Child

fox news ^ | Tuesday, March 19, 2002 | By Wendy McElroy

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

A new legal industry is arising to enrich lawyers, clog the court systems and further saturate society with litigation. It revolves around the concepts of "wrongful birth" and "wrongful life."

In "wrongful birth," the parents of a disabled child initiate a lawsuit, typically against a doctor who is accused of not performing proper genetic screening or not adequately counseling prospective parents. The essence of wrongful birth is that the defendant's negligence resulted in the birth of a disabled child whom the mother would have aborted had she received adequate medical information.

[TheBlueMax]

Absolutely sickening.

[BronzePencil]

my mother smoked when she was pregnant with me and i wear glasses which have caused me much emotional pain and suffering?

perhaps i should sue?

[Wrigley]

WTF??

[JmyBryan]

I believe there is a growing political backlash against the lawsuit culture we now occupy. I know that I am tired of lawyers abetting lowlifes who are somehow unable to get through life without stealing money from some "big pocket".

[bvw]

Doesn't mention the French Court case last year that allowed this perversion of justice.

[patriot31u]

Wonder if Planned Parenthood is behind this. Looks like they are trying to scare doctors into recommending abortions.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Interesting article. So does this mean that the wealthy will only have healthy beautiful children, while less wealthy will have more disabled children due to less resources? It's all very interesting to me. And that with the addition of possible people cloning, does that change the equation?

[Al B.]

Ping.

[Young Rhino]

U.S. courts consistently reject the wrongful birth/wrongful death actions. However, if an abortion is botched, and the child is born, the parents can typically recover from the doc for birth-related and prenatal care expenses. The first cases to hold for the plaintiff will come from outside the U.S., and then some crackpot judge here will use it as persuasive precedent, particularly if the first decision is from a common law system...kind of an Arlen "Scottish Law" Specter thing.

[codebreaker]

Just horrible.

[Jonathon Spectre]

We need to hurry up and colonize some other planets, because sometimes this one makes me F**KING SICK.

[Askel5]

If wrongful birth and life cases proliferate, will doctors advise abortions even when risks are not probable?

Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of "unfit" gassed in pre-war Austria and Germany and we've the gall to use a question mark on this thought?

[Free the USA]

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

[fporretto]

This is merely the logical culmination of:

The End Of The Journey

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[Saundra Duffy]

And Planned Parenthood refuses to tell women the truth about the link between abortion and breast cancer. www.AbortionBreastCancer.com. Our world has been turned upside down. Thank you, Hillary Clinton.

[Slyfox]

This means that every woman who becomes pregnant will be subjected to every
test imaginable and guess who will have to pay higher maternity bills?

Also, every pregnant woman will be suspected of having a lawsuit mentality.

[aruanan]

The essence of wrongful birth is that the defendant's negligence resulted in the birth of a disabled child whom the mother would have aborted had she received adequate medical information.

If the "mother" got what she wanted for her baby, there wouldn't be any cases like this.

[Pete]

Why not just kill the baby after its born?

No big deal, right?

[Maedhros]

Check this out:

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3c1f446e2b1c.htm