News story courtesy of the Associated Press:
TAMPA, Fla. – In what is being called a “wrongful birth” case, a jury awarded more than $21 million to a couple who claimed a doctor misdiagnosed a severe birth defect in their son, leading them to have a second child with similar problems.
“Wrongful birth”? The implications of such a term are enormous, and egregious—to the extreme.
“I believe that this case is so powerful and this tragedy was so preventable and is so poignant, that it is the kind of case that should rise above the fray and rise above party politics,” Searcy [one of the attorneys who tried the case] said.
“[T]his tragedy was so preventable…” What tragedy? The birth of a beautiful little boy? The real tragedy of the story is that a little boy came into this world not being loved, not being named, but being labeled; he was welcomed to life by parents who see his very existence as a tragedy. To be born to people who think you shouldn’t be, who think that you are a flaw, a freak of nature, something to be prevented. The birth of a child is never a tragedy. A birth is always a celebration, and should always be celebrated.
The second tragedy this story highlights is that we live in a world where life is “so preventable”.
