Wrongful Birth

[Scott]

This is awful: $21 Million Awarded for 'Wrongful Birth'

Wrongful birth is a cause of action available by parents against doctors. If the doctors fail to diagnose a potential disability or illness in an unborn child, then the parents can sue after the child is born. The idea is that if the parents knew about the defect, they could have aborted the child. This is awful for so many reasons, not the least of which is that it essentially says that people with disabilities are less valuable than those without.

 

[jsup]

That is absolutely HORRIBLE! It's like "survival of the fittest". Your own parents will terminate your life if you aren't "fit" for survival. This mentality has already infiltrated caring for the elderly (euthanasia) and now parenting!

 

[Blueridge Believer]

Unbelievable wickedness.

 

[LadyFlynt]

And Testing is VERY inaccurate!

 

[govols]

My son Jackson was born with a club foot, which is hereditary on my wife's side of the family. He had to have surgery for it at 3 months old, which straightened up his foot. The bone doc asked us that if we knew ahead of time that Jackson had a club foot (in the womb) that we could have avoided visiting him. I wanted to cuss at him in between the tears but explained the blessing that God gave us was precious and he looked at us like we were crazy. It was a foot that is now a little smaller than the other but he runs, jumps, everything.

What was sad was visiting the bone doc's office and seeing little children who have never walked or sat up nor will they ever. I was in there concerned about a foot that would be corrected in a matter of months and there were children in there that would love to just to sit up to hug their mom. Quite a humbling experience. I would sit in the van and bawl.

 

[Blueridge Believer]

My son Jackson was born with a club foot, which is hereditary on my wife's side of the family. He had to have surgery for it at 3 months old, which straightened up his foot. The bone doc asked us that if we knew ahead of time that Jackson had a club foot (in the womb) that we could have avoided visiting him. I wanted to cuss at him in between the tears but explained the blessing that God gave us was precious and he looked at us like we were crazy. It was a foot that is now a little smaller than the other but he runs, jumps, everything.

What was sad was visiting the bone doc's office and seeing little children who have never walked or sat up nor will they ever. I was in there concerned about a foot that would be corrected in a matter of months and there were children in there that would love to just to sit up to hug their mom. Quite a humbling experience. I would sit in the van and bawl.

God bless you for sharing that brother. It is a heartbreaking story. It is good to hear of the mercy the Lord has shown to you and your family.

Psa 34:19 Many [are] the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

 

[christiana]

How can a believer become an obstetrician these days with such a horrible load of legality placed on them! How do they deal with these issues within their conscience!
Such a horrible thing to consider, that they be required to diagnose and report such findings, knowing the decisions that may be made on what they report to parents!
To consider the hourly loss of life due to abortion today is both mind boggling and horrifying to consider!
Judgment is coming!

 

[MrMerlin777]

Judgment is coming!

Indeed!

 

[LadyFlynt]

How can a believer become an obstetrician these days with such a horrible load of legality placed on them! How do they deal with these issues within their conscience!
Such a horrible thing to consider, that they be required to diagnose and report such findings, knowing the decisions that may be made on what they report to parents!
To consider the hourly loss of life due to abortion today is both mind boggling and horrifying to consider!
Judgment is coming!

This is why many women are quitting OB/GYNs and instead turning to Midwives of various sorts.

 

[x.spasitel]

If anyone has a few hours of spare time, I would heartily recommend the 20th Century Atlas: Worldwide Statistics of Casualties, Massacres, Disasters, and Atrocities for a fascinatingly morbid look at the comparisons of various death numbers of various things throughout history. Two that I would like to highlight:

Legal abortions were performed in the United States, 1970-95: 29,247,142
Total American soldiers killed in all wars to present: 1,314,683

 

[RamistThomist]

and we thought the Middle Ages were primitive. I bet bioethics becomes one of the top battlefields in the next generation.

 

[jbergsing]

This topic is almost too upsetting for me to comment on. We have 4 wonderful, normal, healthy lil' monsters running around. I remember the OB/GYN on #2 wanting to do all this testing "for us" so we could determine if we wanted to go forward with the pregnancy. That isn't exactly how he put it, but that was the impression he left on me. We simply refused all of those tests as it wouldn't have mattered at all to us and seemed like a waste of time and resources.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

This is disgusting. Can you imagine the child growing up to find that his/her parents sued the doctors for not killing them.

"Mom and Dad, why are you so rich?"

"Oh, we sued doctors for allowing you to be born."

Come, Lord Jesus!

 

[LadyFlynt]

I always did the testing (less stress between the ob and myself), but made it clear from the start that it was ONLY for the purpose of being prepared to handle any complications and knowing how to care for a child of particular needs. The OB was made aware that abortion/termination was NOT an option.

 

[Blue Tick]

This is madness!

 

[jsup]

It makes me wonder how much the Lord will tolerate.

 

[BJClark]

Apparently, there is another one going on in Kentucky as well..a friend of mine works for an attorney I shared the article with her and her response was.."we have a wrongful birth case" I'm not sure which side the lawyer she is working for is on though...and I'm not sure I want to ask...

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

Perhaps someone should look into suing the Dr. responsable for the birth of these two parents and the schiester lawyer that helped them....

 

[BJClark]

LadyFlynt;

I always did the testing (less stress between the ob and myself), but made it clear from the start that it was ONLY for the purpose of being prepared to handle any complications and knowing how to care for a child of particular needs. The OB was made aware that abortion/termination was NOT an option.

I didn't have any of the testing done because to me, it wouldn't have mattered one way or another..even knowing I still wouldn't have had an abortion..so why pay to have the tests done?

I've known many women who had tests done and the doctors told them their child would be born with such and such disabilty and yet had the child anyway, and the child was born WITHOUT the disability..so even the tests can be wrong...

 

[LadyFlynt]

ITA...the tests are extremely faulty. Again, it wouldn't have mattered one way or another. I am familiar with genetic disorders and have helped raise children that were austism spectrum as well as mentally handicapped. Merely knowing the issues that go into it, I wanted to at least know the possibility so that I could research in the area and attempt at being a prepared parent in how to care best for my child.

 

[Anton Bruckner]

If anyone has a few hours of spare time, I would heartily recommend the 20th Century Atlas: Worldwide Statistics of Casualties, Massacres, Disasters, and Atrocities for a fascinatingly morbid look at the comparisons of various death numbers of various things throughout history. Two that I would like to highlight:

Legal abortions were performed in the United States, 1970-95: 29,247,142
Total American soldiers killed in all wars to present: 1,314,683

Estimated abortions worldwide: 527M to 836M (1920-2000)


by now we should have surpassed 1 billion

 

[x.spasitel]

Not quite -- the USA is averaging a little less than a million abortions a year...I don't have complete statistics, but if you pro-rate that across the rest of the world and add a few more for China, that's about 23 million a year, as probably the upper bound of estimates -- added to 823 million, another upper bound, for six and a half years, we don't quite reach 975 million abortions since 1920. As a maximum.



...come, Lord Jesus, come!

 

[SemperWife]

And Testing is VERY inaccurate!

I looked it up and found this to be true - only a 62% detection rate with prenatal screening. The genetic history offers a 1 in 7 chance of getting the disorder. I am not sure how the couple won with these statistics. Perhaps the odds go up a little with a history of one child already getting the disorder. Not that it matters anyway.

Even if, the doctors were found liable, it would seem to sue for the cost of caring for the child would be sufficient. They cannot change the fact that they have a child now, whether they wanted it or not. That is part of the risk of having children. I wonder what they would have done had there been no tests to detect for this disorder - given the child away???

While I hate the amount of suing that goes on, that detail doesn't bother me as much as their rationale for the lawsuit which was that they would have aborted the child if they knew. While I have compassion on the family for the amount of care these children will require, to say that they would have killed a child because it would have essentially been a burden just breaks my heart. When I think of the amount of care we require as healthy individuals and how a merciful and loving God paid the ultimate sacrifice, doesn't caring for a small helpless child seem like such a little sacrifice....even a lifetime a care?

But then, how can the world understand something so foreign to them? I pray that God will use these two children to bring their parents to Him somehow. Wouldn't that be a beautiful story and a powerful testimony?

 

[SemperWife]

My son Jackson was born with a club foot, which is hereditary on my wife's side of the family. He had to have surgery for it at 3 months old, which straightened up his foot. The bone doc asked us that if we knew ahead of time that Jackson had a club foot (in the womb) that we could have avoided visiting him. I wanted to cuss at him in between the tears but explained the blessing that God gave us was precious and he looked at us like we were crazy. It was a foot that is now a little smaller than the other but he runs, jumps, everything.

What was sad was visiting the bone doc's office and seeing little children who have never walked or sat up nor will they ever. I was in there concerned about a foot that would be corrected in a matter of months and there were children in there that would love to just to sit up to hug their mom. Quite a humbling experience. I would sit in the van and bawl.

A humbling expereince indeed! My husband and I share a similar experience. Our daughter, Anna, was born severely anemic, requiring a few blood transfusions. That evening, she experienced seizures. After some testing, it was determined that she had 3 strokes in utero and could potentially have severe neurological problems the rest of her life. We, too sat in a familiar waiting room at her neurologist's office and observed many children with far more problems than our daughter. There were so many children that couldn't walk, talk or even move. And here our daughter was sitting, smiling and playing with us. I could see the faces of some of the parents, watching with admiration. It was humbling indeed!

What was my husbands response to the birth of our daughter? Could he have found someone to sue? Sure. Could he have regretted her birth? Certainly. Instead, by God's grace, he said, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away..." He trusted that the Lord gave her to us just as she was for whatever purpose that may be. And we welcomed her, thankfully, into our home. I pray that the Lord would see fit to change the hearts of these parents. I pray that they will see the many blessings these children will bring them.

 

[BJClark]

SemperWife;

If they had one child born with this disability they knew there was still SOME chance of having another child born with the disability and they still opted to take the chance...no matter what tests were available they still took the chance. And knowing the tests are not 100% accurate anyway, it was STILL a risk they were willing to take...so the doctor should not be required to pay them ANY money!!!

 

[VictorBravo]

This is disgusting. Can you imagine the child growing up to find that his/her parents sued the doctors for not killing them.

"Mom and Dad, why are you so rich?"

"Oh, we sued doctors for allowing you to be born."

Come, Lord Jesus!

That was precisely my first thought too.

"If the law supposes that, . . . the law is a ass."

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

That was precisely my first thought too.

"If the law supposes that, . . . the law is a ass."

Well said, Mr. Bumble.

 

[SemperWife]

SemperWife;

If they had one child born with this disability they knew there was still SOME chance of having another child born with the disability and they still opted to take the chance...no matter what tests were available they still took the chance. And knowing the tests are not 100% accurate anyway, it was STILL a risk they were willing to take...so the doctor should not be required to pay them ANY money!!!

I agree. I was just trying to state that IF they were going to sue, one would have thought that they would have just sued for money to help care for the child, not for the regret of not being able to abort. I was not trying to make a case for the law suit. That was why I put qualifiers in, like EVEN IF or THAT IS PART OF THE RISK OF HAVING CHILDREN. I also said, "I AM NOT SURE HOW THE COUPLE WON WITH THESE STATISTICS. Perhaps the odds go up a little with a history of one child already getting the disorder. NOT THAT IT MATTERS ANYWAY." I thought those statements clarified that I was not in agreement with the lawsuit. Perhaps they weren't stated strongly enough.

I think these law suits are ridiculous! I do not condone them. We always take a risk when we have a child. And doctors can't be held liable because our children do not turn out the way we want them to.

If you saw my other post, you know that we had a child that had severe problems at birth. We did not know of any problems until the time of her birth. I could have gone back and "found" reasons to sue. I am sure some lawyer could have twisted something to make it sound really bad. The fact is that I am confident that the doctors did the best they could (which is not perfection)and that we cannot predict everything. I love my daughter! I loved her then! I don't regret her birth and would never have sued because she was "imperfect."

 

[No Longer A Libertine]

My son Jackson was born with a club foot, which is hereditary on my wife's side of the family. He had to have surgery for it at 3 months old, which straightened up his foot. The bone doc asked us that if we knew ahead of time that Jackson had a club foot (in the womb) that we could have avoided visiting him. I wanted to cuss at him in between the tears but explained the blessing that God gave us was precious and he looked at us like we were crazy. It was a foot that is now a little smaller than the other but he runs, jumps, everything.

What was sad was visiting the bone doc's office and seeing little children who have never walked or sat up nor will they ever. I was in there concerned about a foot that would be corrected in a matter of months and there were children in there that would love to just to sit up to hug their mom. Quite a humbling experience. I would sit in the van and bawl.

Troy Aikman was born with clubbed feet and wore corrective shoes until grade school.

Yeah, birth defects sure slowed him down on the way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and three super bowl rings.

What a lame and treacherous argument that is afoot brother, God bless you.