Demands called “wrongful birth” or wrong or unfair birth They appeared in the 70s in the US, when the practice of prenatal diagnoses increased and when the laws began to allow voluntary terminations of pregnancy. In these claims, parents ask compensation for not having enough information and not being able to exercise his right to abortion.
The demands were extended to countries such as Germany, Spain or France. In the latter, with citizen demonstrations involved. More than 200 parents of disabled people gathered in front of the Courthouse in November 2001 to protest offended by a judgment of the Court of Cassation that had confirmed a claim for wrongful life: compensation to the child for suffering malformations. Finally banned in France these demands.
The controversy has arisen again, this time in Spain because some parents have asked for compensation of this type because his daughter was born without the right forearm and hand when they had been assured that the fetus was physically "perfect." The doctor had seen on the ultrasound a limb that did not exist. The malformation was not due to any medical negligence, but the parents understand that they have the right to be compensated because they were not adequately informed of their daughter's status and the woman was deprived of the power to decide whether she wanted to abort or not, as allows the law in cases of fetal malformation before 22 weeks.
They have already been denied compensation, claiming that ultrasound is not always reliable, but they have appealed to the Supreme Court and ask the doctor and the clinic for 180,000 euros.
Controversial situation where there are inviting me to 9 reflections:
- There are bad times for good sense. There are parents who do not want to have a child without arms and others who want their child to inherit their deafness and not be auditory healthy. A world of crazy
- ¿There is risk 0 in life? No, it does not exist even though we hire thousands of insurances. What these lawsuits do achieve is to force medicine to be very defensive, which results to the detriment of all.
- Is this not popularly called eugenism, that is, to eliminate those that society considers "morons"? If the Nazis did it, it was bad and if it is protected by the law, isn't it?
- My husband who has read the news also wonders this: If our son lost his arm at 10 or 20 years, would he commit suicide? Would you ask us to kill him? Why not allow it to be born?
- ¿What is life? To be born, have a mortgage and die within the "normal" marked by each historical moment or something else?
- Doesn't life make sense without a limb or with more chromosomes?
- The millions of people addicted to drugs, alcohol, Prozac, etc. don't they also have "invalidating" lives?
- What is a "perfect" child?
- And first and foremost:what are "perfect" parents?
How many questions and how many possible answers.
Some answers are in this other post with a video of the story of an Australian father and his son with cerebral palsy. It is titled "Can" and it takes a handkerchief to see it and many guts to do a conscience test. Luck
