Couple awarded $2.9M in “wrongful birth” case, would have aborted baby
Christian Post reports,
A jury in Portland, Ore., awarded a couple $2.9 million dollars on Friday for the “wrongful birth” of their daughter who has Down syndrome.
Kalanit Levy was born in June of 2007 to Ariel and Deborah Levy, after prenatal testing did not reveal any abnormalities. . . .
The couple says they would have had an abortion had the test been done properly and they had known about the Down syndrome.
It wasn’t until a few days after Kalanit’s birth that a blood test confirmed that the little girl had the genetic disorder. And now, four years later, the Levys are suing the hospital to pay for the extra costs of caring for their daughter. . . .
Dr. Art Caplan, a bioethicist, wrote on MSNBC’s medical blog, “Vitals,” that “the very fact that such a case can make it into a courtroom reveals a lot that is wrong with public policy and ethics in America.”
He said the case ultimately gets at the heart of how society views and values life and “asks who should have to pay when that life is less than optimal.”
He wrote, “Wrongful birth lawsuits are a horrible way to deal with failed prenatal testing. Forcing parents to argue that their child never should have been born may make legal sense but it is morally absurd.”