Wrongful Life Lawsuit in OZ

The ongoing pogrom against babies with Down syndrome continues.  In Australia, from whence I recently returned, two couples have sued their doctors for failing to diagnose their then unborn babies as having Down—thereby denying them the right to terminate the pregnancies.  From the story:

Two Victorian couples are suing doctors for failing to diagnose Down syndrome in their unborn babies, denying them the chance to terminate the pregnancies. The couples are claiming unspecified damages for economic loss, continuing costs of care of the children, and “psychiatric injury”. Both say they would have aborted their pregnancies had they been told their children would be born with Down syndrome.

May these children never learn that their parents would have preferred that they were never born!

We claim today to be a society steeped in equality and tolerance for differences.  But too often, that doesn’t apply to people with cognitive or developmental disabilities.  I hope this suit fails because there should be no such thing as a “wrongful life.”

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