Brave New World Term of the Week: "Wrongful birth"

That term is used (aptly and damningly) by Billy Hallowell in a post on The Blaze about a Florida couple of who sued medical personnel for negligence because they allegedly were not given information they would have used in choosing to abort their now three-year-old son:

Many times, "wrongful death" is at the root cause of a lawsuit, but what happens in the case of a "wrongful birth" charge?

In West Palm Beach, Florida, a couple sued a doctor and an ultrasound technician for negligence. The two claimed that they would have aborted their son, who was born with no arms and only one leg, had they known about his disabilities beforehand.

The Palm Beach Post reports:

With the heartbreaking image of the small boy etched into their minds, jurors found Palm Beach Gardens obstetrician Dr. Marie Morel, OB/GYN Specialists of the Palm Beaches and Perinatal Specialists of the Palm Beaches responsible for not detecting the boy's horrific disabilities before he was born. The amount they awarded is half of the $9 million Ana Mejia and Rodolfo Santana were seeking for their son, Bryan.

The teary-eyed couple said they were overjoyed by the verdict. "I have no words," Mejia said in her native Spanish. Both agreed the award will make a huge difference in their son's life.

The jury of four men and two women found Morel 85 percent and an ultrasound technician 15 percent negligent for failing to properly read sonograms that would have alerted the couple of their son's disabilities before he was born in October 2008.

Attorney Mark Rosen, who represents Morel and the clinics, said they would appeal.

During a roughly two-week-long trial that ended Wednesday, Mejia and Santana claimed they would have never have brought Bryan into the world had they known about his horrific disabilities. Had Morel and technicians at OB/GYN Specialists of the Palm Beaches and Perinatal Specialists of the Palm Beaches properly administered two ultrasounds and seen he was missing three limbs, the West Palm Beach couple said they would have terminated the pregnancy.

A rather bizarre irony—if that's the right word for such a topic—is that the parents would have learned of their unborn son's condition if the mother had undergone amniocentesis (a procedure used in prenatal diagnosis of abnormalities and infections), but "rejected it because they were told that there was a 1 in 500 chance that removing amniotic fluid for testing would cause a miscarriage."

One commenter asks the perfectly logical question: "How great is that kid going to feel when he's old enough to learn his parents testified that had they known his true condition they would have killed him?" But it seems that in the Brave New World, regret is a one-way street, shame is never allowed in the room, and everyone must be protected from any possible ills, difficulties, or tragedies. Everyone, that is, except for the unborn. They are expendable—and if they aren't expendable, they are a burden. My prayer is that Mejia and Rodolfo Santana realize that their son, Bryan, is a gift and a blessing.