The highest French appeals court has decided, in effect, that those with Down’s Syndrome have a legal right to have not been born, and can sue doctors for not aborting them.
Say what?
In the case in question, Baby Lionel’s mother was not informed that genetic screening indicated that Lionel might have Down’s Syndrome. She’s indicated that should would have aborted had she knwon.
The judges in Lionel’s case decided that the doctor was “100 percent” liable for the cost of the care needed for the child, since the diagnostic error meant that the mother was not given the chance to abort. The court had already awarded damages of around $100,000, five years earlier. Last week’s ruling ordered the sum to be substantially increased. The exact amount is to be announced at the end of January.
[…] The most worrying aspect is that the ruling confirmed a similar decision by the same court last year. In November 2000, the court ruled that Nicolas Perruche – born severely disabled – should receive damages from his mother’s doctor, who had failed to warn her of the dangers of rubella (also known as German measles) during pregnancy. That case immediately caused widespread consternation, but many thought the ruling was an exception.
And, in keeping with the Law of Unintended Consequences …
The cases have also alarmed doctors, who fear a growing number of lawsuits. Bessis says many specialists have already stopped carrying out prenatal scans ….
I thank my lucky stars that, thus far, I have never been faced with such a decision, and, frankly, I don’t know that I can say how I would decide were I faced with the knowledge that my impending child would be severely handicapped. I don’t think anyone, frankly, can make such a judgment before actually being faced with it.
That having been said, even in a case where I wasn’t told ahead of time, it seems to me that to therefore decide the doctors were responsible for all the costs, etc., involved is just wrong. And to extend that to a right not to be born seems to be judicial sophistry.
(Via Boing Boing)