Posted by jazzed on June 26, 2005, at 10:23:27
In reply to question about birth the law *possible trigger**, posted by Jen Star on June 25, 2005, at 19:12:50
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> Do you think people should be allowed to sue for "wrongful birth?"
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> Should she get monetary comp. from the doctor & hospital?
>Hey Jen,
This is so highly personal, it's just so hard to say morally whether someone should, could, or would sue for something like this. Legally I guess it's more clear depending on the medical records.
Like Tamar, I had a good possibility of having problems with our last child. I opted not to know. With all of my kids, I opted not to have the tests that would show birth defects. Some ppl aren't equiped emotionally to do deal with a child who has health problems, and I can certainly understand that POV, it's so personal. I feel so blessed to have normal, healthy children, and at this stage of my life, I don't think I could deal with a child with serious health issues, or the birth of a deformed child.
I guess the need to know is different for everyone. The right to know is everyone's now, and then, at what point serious defects can be accurately detected, esp. on sonogram, is another issue. From what I understand sonograms can be highly inaccurate. I know personally, that they can show defects that aren't there, and I'm sure they can be inaccurate the other way - e.g. my daughter's heart issue didn't show up. The other testing that's offered to pregnant women, which is very accurate, from what I understand is neccessary to tell if there are bd's. Those tests are always offered, you have to sign forms to decline them. Wonder if she had those tests.
IMO suing doctors has gotten out of hand, and is a big reason why healthcare/insurance is such a mess these days. Doctors are afraid to do their job, esp. ob/gyn's. Of course, when you are on the receiving end of what is bad healthcare, then you want justice, esp. in a case like this which is so loaded, and I can understand that 100%. You would never want to suffer from bad healthcare, and esp. wouldn't want an innocent little baby to suffer a horrible existance for any length of time.
Of course, from another angle, it's not the doctors fault that the baby was deformed. But how much did he know, and did he intentionally not disclose? I would guess that any doctor who delivers an unhealthy baby feels horrible. Our 2nd child was born, and wisked off to children's hosp., they weren't sure she was going to live, they thought she had a bad heart defect, but after a time in the hosp. she was fine. They made an error, and ruled on the side of caution. The thought of implicating the doctor or hosp. in any way never entered my mind. All of this is a whole different issue, one that personally I would hope I could look at if I were in this predicament.
Right now I know of a young woman who is pregnant, and for reasons beyond her control, she has no health insurance. She had a serious medical event that landed her in the hospital, in ICU, and all the hospital could think of what that she was a liability to them. They said, within earshot of her parents, that they had to "get rid of her" because of the liability involved. They didn't want a sick mom who could possibly lose a baby while in their care. They refused to check the health and wellbeing of the baby because of that. To me, this is beyond sad that things have come to this, not to mention the lack of empathy on the part of healthcare providers.
We'll never know what really happened in this particular instance, what the real facts are on the doctor's end. Did he know, and choose to not disclose, or if he really didn't disclose, or if he offered further testing, or if he really didn't know, or if you can even really know with 100% accuracy, esp. with sonograms. I wouldn't want to be the woman, and I wouldn't want to be the doctor, that's for sure.
Sorry for rambling on and on!
Jazzy
poster:jazzed
thread:518843
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050624/msgs/519179.html