A couple are fighting for compensation after having a disabled child who they would have aborted had they known of her condition.
Similar “wrongful birth” cases have resulted in millions of dollars in compensation being awarded overseas.
Twenty-eight-year-old Linda (not her real name) and her husband are appealing an ACC decision not to provide cover after doctors missed signs of spina bifida in their daughter during a 20-week scan.
They say that continuing with the pregnancy was a personal injury, and treatment for that (an abortion) was denied to them.
All I can say is: “evil, evil, evil”.
This couple consider the child an “injury” to themselves just because it was disabled – not only do they fail to recognise the personhood and dignity of their daughter, but they have the gall to claim that she is a harmful evil to their marriage.
The most twisted and deluded part of all was this…
Linda said she was not ashamed of saying she would have aborted her daughter.
“In no way are we saying we don’t want her now,” she said.
“It would have been a very difficult decision – not something taken lightly – but with the information we would have had at the time, had they given it to us, that’s the decision we would have made.”
She said they were first-time parents and would not have wished a painful life on their daughter.
“We didn’t have time to prepare before she was born, and we didn’t have a choice with whether she was born or not.”
Linda said she wanted to be able to tell her daughter that she did everything she could to guarantee a stable life for her.
Depending on her development, she would tell her about the court case, and hoped she would understand.
Oh, and what kind of lawyer chooses to accept a case like this?
Brendan Malone
Dean Mischewski
John Kennedy
Georgina Priest
Truth Seeker
Bobby Schindler
Chris Pemberton
I wonder if “Linda” has thought beyond money and her immediate situation to the impact her case, if successful, will have on not only medical personnel involved in pregnancy (will there still be people willing to be midwives, obstetricians and radiographers?) but the pressure it will put on women to have unnecessary prenatal tests (yes, you can get through pregnancy without ultrasound scans and amniocentesis) or to have abortions if their baby isn’t “perfect”. “Linda” is fortunate she can talk about one day having to adapt a car for her daughter. Not every child with spina bifida lives that long! Perhaps part of the problem is the difference in help given to those under ACC (e.g. babies who are disabled because of midwives’ / doctors’ negligence or suffer a later accident) compared to those born with genetic conditions or later suffer health problems. I also think “Linda” suffers from an incredible lack of imagination and empathy if she thinks her daughter will understand why her mother would have aborted her given the choice, rather than being devastated and depressed. I think intending parents need to realise that “bad things do happen to good people” and while others, including the State, should be prepared to assist, nothing will undo what has happened. As Elisabeth Kubler-Ross says: “You will not grow if you sit in a beautiful flower garden, but you will grow if you are sick, if you are in pain, if you experience losses, and if you do not put your head in the sand, but take the pain as a gift to you with a very, very specific purpose.” http://www.ekrfoundation.org/quotes.php