Latest rant: 'wrongful life'. I can't find a link so I'll just paste the article (I read it on my board).
| SANTA ANA -- Parents of a year- old girl born with a serious genetic defect have sued their Placentia obstetrician for allegedly failing to tell them about a routine blood test that would have detected the problem and given them the option to abort her. Citing a state law that allows parents to sue on behalf of an infant for "wrongful life,'' Colleen Duff and Dan Fraker, both 27 and of Yorba Linda, seek millions of dollars for the future medical care of their daughter, Leilani Duff-Fraker, born last August with spina bifida, a permanent disability. Dr. Frederick William Dieterich, 54, is accused of failing to perform the common Alpha-Fetoprotein, or AFP test, between Duff's 15th and 19th weeks of pregnancy - a test that would have detected neurological genetic defects in the fetus, according to the lawsuit, filed Friday in Santa Ana. The couple were unaware that pregnant women routinely get the test, said their attorney, Lawrence S. Eisenberg of Irvine. The lawsuit also seeks damages for alleged medical negligence and wrongful birth. "My clients are very nice people who have been thrown into this terrible tragedy through no fault of their own," Eisenberg said. "They are coping as best as they can to deal with the heart-wrenching requirements of raising a cognitively impaired child." Dieterich, a physician and surgeon for more than 24 years, was unavailable for comment. The 1972 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College has no record of disciplinary actions with the Medical Board of California. According to the lawsuit, Dieterich began seeing Duff in March 2003 for prenatal and obstetrical medical care and treatment, when she was about 15 weeks into her pregnancy. Leilani was born Aug. 29, 2003. Duff and Fraker, who has been unable to work since the birth of his daughter, according to the lawsuit, declined to be interviewed for this story. Details about Leilani's condition and prognosis were not available. Medical-malpractice lawsuits alleging wrongful life are relatively rare, said Jay Horton, a private mediator at Judicate West in Santa Ana who has 35 years of experience handling medical-malpractice cases. He said the "wrongful life" cause of action has been around for more than a decade and typically is cited in lawsuits in which vasectomies or tubal ligations fail to prevent unwanted pregnancies. The (law) is driven by public policy," Horton said. "It was designed to answer the question, if a person is brought into the world and will become a financial burden, then who should bear the costs? Should it be the parents? The public? Or, if there is someone at fault who created this financial burden, should they bear the cost?" Leilani's parents should have been provided with the information that would have allowed them to weigh the option of aborting their baby, according to the lawsuit. "In our modern world of advanced technology, new parents should be able to take advantage of this information, and unfortunately, in this case they were precluded from making an informed decision by Dr. Dieterich's negligent conduct," Eisenberg said. Ok, I found the link. |
Blah. Blah blah blah.
1. Our society is so freaking selfish it makes me want to slap everyone silly. Ugh. Grr.
2. What kind of horrible people would declare that their daughter is much too big of a burden on them because of her disability, and that they should have been able to kill her long ago? What kind of despicable parents could look at their baby girl and say "If we had it to do over we'd have aborted you. We wish you were never born."??? It makes me sick.
3. The more I read about this crap, the more convinced I am that societal acceptance of birth control is at the heart of it. I mean look at it this way: Society accepts birth control. Society accepts extra-marital sex as normal and even encouraged behavior. Sexually transmitted diseases run rampant. Divorce rates skyrocket. Society accepts abortion as a legal alternative in case birth control fails. Society can't agree on when a human being is considered a "person". Children have become objects that we can make and destroy at will. It's sickening.
4. I feel sorry for not only that poor little girl, but also the doctor being sued. The case should be dropped, the parents should be locked up, and the baby should go to one of thousands of homes that would love to love her, illness and all.
5. What are they going to do if they win, anyway? Kill their daughter? Perhaps not, but they might be paving the way for some family down the road to legally kill their child. One thing leads to another. I wonder if the first supporters of birth control saw the rest of this coming.
The Pope did, in the 1960's, by the way. I love my Church.