Wrongful birth?
I will readily admit that I have conflicting thoughts on this one, and am curious to hear others' thoughts.
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There's a test for a genetic abnormality (if my memory serves me right it's MTHFR). They should test for it. They don't. Lots of kids are screwed up because of the test not being done, and a lot of doctors being clueless. And, its effects are avoidable after birth if the baby's health is managed appropriately.
This is all a weird area of medical ethics...
Edited to add that this lady will never get a dime.
And she's certainly welcome to put the child up for adoption. Every child deserves and needs parents who love them - not who look at them as a hardship or anchor.
Maybe she's filing a suit because she loves the kid and thinks the money will help her take better care of the child. (It will)
Given that experience, I have to cast a significantly jaundiced eye toward this woman and her purported motives. The saddest part is that I can identify kids (like this woman's) who know their parents don't want them or don't give them the attention they crave. Those are the ones who act out in school (or anywhere else). They're the ones who are highly susceptible to peer pressure. Those are the ones who end up becoming teenage parents, high school dropouts, and gang members.
So far, my son's disability has cost me about $900k over the past decade, from my own pocket. No...even under Obamacare nothing's free.
One slight difference I see between your example and that of the subject of the article, is whose money would be used. If the woman wins and has all those medical costs paid for by others, has she really risen to the same level of love and sacrifice you have?
Money is a tool and its use can be an indicator of investment, but I don't think anyone would disagree that it is easier to spend someone else's money than our own.
There was a lovely, young lady at my college who had CF. She was bright, beautiful...but likely dead long ago, now. I think of her every time I hear of CF.
This is a case where the woman wanted to create liability where none existed. The fault of the disability was not the medical professional's. To make them pay for such is to invent causal liability where none previously existed. That is a very dangerous road for society in general and one I absolutely oppose.
However, that's not what is at the heart of the matter anyway. The real complaint this woman is making is that she is only willing to take on the responsibilities of being a parent if it fits into her preconceived (no pun intended) notions - which is that of the care of a normal child with no birth defects or unforeseen costs. She wasn't interested in becoming a parent in anything less than ideal circumstances. She is attempting to blame the medical techs for not being able to opt out of becoming a parent.
OK, I just read it again. I think she has a simple, deductive argument here. However, she thinks winning the lawsuit will result in a happier childhood for the kid. Since she filed it 4 years ago, I'm not sure that's the case. I'm not convinced this is just a story about a bad mother. I also don't think she'll be awarded anything.
Sorry to beat a dead horse. This is a topic close to my heart.
What a bring down, let down, that is.
LOL
I think that this specific case is just the mother trying to grab some bucks, but that the overall situation deserves looking at. I have talked to many people who have been 'herded' into making a particular medical decision by the doctor simply not telling them of alternatives. If they trust the doctor, they trust that they have been given all of the choices available (not just all the worst choices plus the one cherry-picked good choice that the doctor prefers).
Yes, it is the responsibility of the individual to find out what is going on and make the decision, but we rely on the presence of experts to make our society plausible. A brilliant physicist may not have a clue about medicine; he relies on his doctor to present him with a reasoned set of alternatives, the same way the doctor relies on the physicist to do physics.
We have often discussed how terrible it is for schools to teach Global Warming and Socialism as if there were no viable alternatives. Similarly, a doctor has to present all of the options he does not consider actually dangerous to his patient. Many doctors do not do this.
Jan
One of the problems with the medical profession is that they have gone to a lot of trouble to heap too much onto the doctor. For example, when I studied Medical Technology, we were taught how to diagnose (certain) diseases from laboratory results; we are unfortunately forbidden by law from doing this! The doctors do not have time to learn every new lab test (/radiology procedure/pharmaceutical) but they have boxed themselves into a situation where other medical professions are forbidden to take some of the load off their shoulders. This system needs revision.
The discussion of malpractice suits is another topic altogether...
Jan
Jan
First things I think of, Abe Lincoln, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot.
"Yes. So safe, so fat, so comfortable"
John Adams from the movie 1776
“This declared indifference but, as I must think, covert zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. Hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself.” -Abraham Lincoln, 1854, six years before he was elected President. http://www.sj-r.com/article/20081024/...
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/17845...
Spill it, Michael ;^)
Lincoln's action toward slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation, was a tactical action of war and it did not free anyone because it only had effect where Lincoln had no authority at the time. Lincoln has been deified by historians writing to eradicate Lincoln's real actions that caused the war. Read the well researched writings of Professor Thomas DiLorenzo. There are also some presentations he gave on youtube that are compelling, too.
http://bearingarms.com/indictment-cha...
What else can we tear down Is there anything left? Oh yes...the left is left. F'n congratulations.
While writing the above, old dino thought of two more wrongful births who ain't as all ludicrous as Bozo the Veep.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
One could argue that Nancy is also "Let's pass this bill to see what's in it" ludicrous as Joe the Blow, but she's done a lot more damage than the The One's second fiddle.
What if she asked her doctor to do this test on her elderly parent and was denied?
Truth be told, she could have aborted with the knowledge the test would have given her. What's the Objectivist take on that? My version is that she had every right to terminate that birth if given the information.
A very close friend of mine (pregnant when we were with ours) learned late in the pregnancy that their baby had downs. They terminated and started over. What if they had been denied that test after asking for it?
Maybe I have a unique perspective here because I have a disabled kid. I both love my kid more than anybody in the world and acknowledge that raising him is a massive pain in my ass. It's destroyed my wife. People can, and should be given the information available to them to make informed decisions. That's the Objectivist in me talking - and I don't mean to offend.
What good is technology if we don't use it to make informed decisions? Just what in the hell are we doing here, otherwise?
Freedomforall
Got it right on the nose. 'Nuff said.
I can't blame her for not requesting a test that she didn't know existed. It's a doctor's job to inform you about options like that.
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/l...
their understanding of the state-of-the-art as it applies
to my life situation. . when I come to think that I am not
getting that, I change doctors. . while she might have
the idea that she was not getting the best care from
her doctor, she could have gotten help from another,
couldn't she? -- j
.
revise from there. . we have awful constraints in life
which affect everything. -- j
.
Okay, so he wasn't perfect (neither was Wash-
ington or Jefferson). He was inconsistent, in using
the draft (which is a form of slavery). but please
don't tell me about states' "rights". As someone
(A.R.) once said, "There is no such thing as 'the
right to enslave.' "
People who fought in a cause, whose end re-
sult, if won, would have been the continuation
of slavery, have no business whining about the
economic damage, the loss of crops, etc. which
came out of their defeat. I have no sympathy
for that. (And this is from a Southern white).
I don't recall that that was the case with any of
the North's draftees. Forcing someone into involun-
tary servitude is necessarily practicing slavery.Still,
while I don't claim Lincoln was perfect, he and his
cause did eventually get rid of slavery.
country it is, involuntary servitude is what it is.
the City of Richmond was blocking it (as it occas-
inally it does with things I try to click on) so I have-
n't seen it. Somebody gave birth to a deformed in-
fant? Or had she tried to get a preferred sex or
other characteristics?
Jan
What gives here?...
What I didn't realize as clearly at the time was that now my daughter's genetic profile was in someone's computer somewhere, without my or her permission. This is one of the scarier implications of Zerocare (or Obamascare).
Last night, elsewhere in this thread, I wrote about 23AndMe's genetic testing services. Imagine the implications of an insurance company getting hold of your genetic profile.
"Comments Received" in others' e-mail boxes. (I
think someone told me once, but I forgot). ed weaver--SURPRISED THAT THINGS GET
BLOCKED?--Oh yeah. Other things get blocked, too. Jobs on websites, and such. I
asked a librarian about it, and she seemed un-
clear as to why.
Click on the reply.