Wrongful Parents

It's been a while since something has fired me up enough to sit down and compose my thoughts. I usually prefer to respond to issues that are either egregious or have flown under the radar. The issue of this post, I believe, has done both.

A couple from Portland Oregon recently won $2.9 million dollars in a "wrongful birth" suit. That's right wrongful birth! Their daughter was born with Down Syndrome and the doctors misdiagnosed their baby as healthy during their prenatal visits. They argue that they were not given the opportunity to terminate their pregnancy due to the fact their daughter was going to be born with special needs.

After I cleaned up my vomit I sat down to write these thoughts:

First (and foremost): The Oregon department of Human Services: Children, Adults, and Family division needs to step in and immediately remove this child from that home. By the parent's own admission they do not want her. To what other conclusion can one come if these parents openly admit they would have aborted the child during pregnancy? That's only a few steps short of announcing "We would kill our child now if it were legal." If you would like to contact the Oregon DHS, you can do so at this email address: dhs.directorsoffice@state.or.us

Second: A higher court needs to overturn this travesty of a ruling. Doctors already "play it safe" with diagnosis, with referrals, with emergency room visits in a vain attempt to avoid malpractice suits. Now the misdiagnosis of "healthy" of an in-utero fetus has led to a massive award! Doctors can't even always accurately determine the gender of a baby, now we are expecting them to catch every possible prenatal complication? Consider the implications if doctors begin to "play it safe" in this arena as they do in most others: If there is even the hint of a problem, now it's a diagnosis. How many completely healthy babies will we abort because of this ground-breaking, precedent-setting decision? What are we, Sparta?

Third: I pray that this poor four-year-old girl never, ever learns how her parents got their money. Do we really believe that a person with Down Syndrome has less worth than someone who doesn't? "If you prick [her] do[es she] not bleed? If you tickle [her] do[es she] not laugh? If you poison [her] do[es she] not die? And if you wrong [her] shall [she] not revenge?" If you tell her that her parents would have aborted her if they'd known that she wasn't going to be perfect, what will that do to this poor girl who is already dealing with the fact that she isn't like everyone else?! This is where a god-less view of evolution has led us: a society that believes that a person's worth is determined solely by how we perceive "Natural Selection" would impact them. There is no God in whose image they were made. No one was "knit together in their mother's womb." There is no eternal purpose to our existence. In fact, parenthood, which ought to be the most selfless of acts, becomes something akin to buying a car. "This one's ok but I wanted one with a leather interior." What happens when their other child comes home with a C in Geometry? Do they sue the math teacher? Oh, no, they'd go after the doctor who didn't give them an opportunity to abort this less-than-perfect child.

Fourth: How is this possibly the doctor's responsibility to pay for the "additional costs of raising a special needs child?" (This was the "legal" basis of the suit.) I suppose it's more accurate to ask "How is this possibly the doctor's malpractice insurance policy's responsibility to pay for the 'additional costs of raising a special needs child?'" Down Syndrome is a genetic condition so why aren't they suing their own families? If they are serious about placing blame, they ought to be working to determine which parent caused their daughter to have an extra chromosome, and force that parent to work two jobs. Do you think the cost of health care is high now? Guess what this decision is going to do to those already sky-rocketing premiums? Sorry, Obama-care, you don't even touch this issue.

Fifth: Where is the ACLU?! The silent acceptance of the point-of-view of these parents is to encourage what amounts to nothing less than a genocide of children based solely on their disability! How is this not a complete trampling of their civil liberties?! Where is the outrage from organizations that defend the disabled? Is the ACLU finding difficulty determining which "civil liberty" they ought to defend: A woman's right to kill choose, or a fetus' right to live?

This issue is disgusting on so many levels: First, shame on the parents who brought this suit to court. Second, shame on the lawyer who put money ahead of morals. Third, shame on those that ruled in favor of these so-called parents who have forfeited their rights to their daughter simply by dreaming up this vile malpractice suit. And finally, shame on those that silently approve of the practice of killing unborn babies because they weren't "perfect." You will not find me among their ranks.

That's my opinion. What's yours?!