What if your parents had said to you: “I wish you’d never been born.” That’s quite a statement, right?
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and many children have felt the sting of those words, perhaps when a parent has become frustrated or angry. But did you know that there really are parents who not only wish their child had never been born, but are making that wish a reality? They are taking their doctors, hospitals and clinics to court in what is called “wrongful birth” lawsuits. Wrongful birth cases are based on the grounds that parents would have aborted their child if they had known he or she would be born with a disability. These kinds of court cases began cropping up around 2007 and 2008, and they drew a lot of media attention because of the large sums of money that were awarded to the parents, usually because a lab misread a genetic test or an amniocentesis procedure. The parents thought they were going to have a healthy baby but instead, they gave birth to a child with a disability. And they’re mad about it.
These lawsuits are so sad — and expensive. Last year, a couple in Washington State won $50 million after the court concluded that the clinic mishandled a genetic test revealing the child's mental and physical disabilities. More recently, an Illinois woman sued her doctor when she discovered that she was pregnant after having had her tubes tied. When she gave birth to a daughter with sickle-cell disease, she took her doctor and the medical facility to court and — you guess it — she won the case. It breaks my heart to think that children with disabilities are hearing from their parents that they should never have been born. Wow! It’s just another repercussion from the Roe vs. Wade decision back in the 1970’s — back then, once the courts upheld a woman’s right to choose over a child’s right to live, well, it opens the door to all kinds of other abuses. Like this one.
Well, someone is finally doing something about it. U.S. Representative Steven Palazzo, from Mississippi, has introduced the Every Child Is a Blessing Act to combat "wrongful birth" lawsuits and prevent discrimination against children born with disabilities. This bill is one lawmaker’s attempt to reverse this growing trend and, in so doing, prevent discrimination against children with disabilities, as well as to protect their lives. Plus this bill would limit the amount of money plaintiffs could receive in wrongful birth suits — not only in these court cases, but also in wrongful life suits. Yes, there are even adult children with disabilities who are suing their parents for giving them birth — they find their disability to be so burdensome, they’re making their parents pay. Oh, my goodness, that’s crazy.
So I'm going to be watching this bill which is being put before Congress by Representative Steven Palazzo. And I hope we have a national conversation about this topic, because there are so many competing points of view: a parent’s so-called right to choose, the sanctity of life, disability issues, and more. In fact, I would like to hear your point of view. What do you think when parents sue a medical clinic that fails to provide the facts that an unborn child has a disability, and what do you think of disabled young adults who despise their condition and take their parents to court? Many people say a disability is tremendously expensive and that’s why people are pressing their cases in court in order to receive monetary damages. But what do you think? I’d like to hear your perspective, so post your comment today on or radio page on our website at joniandfriends.org.
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