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_WORLD WATCH______________________________
______________________FRANCE____________________
Genetically screened baby born
Siblings rejected for genetic defects
In November, doctors in France announced that a woman gave birth to the country’s first genetically screened baby, in a process condemned by pro-lifers because it involved the deliberate destruction of unborn children.
The baby boy “Valentin” was born on November 15 at the Antoine-Beclere Hospital in Clamart, outside Paris, and his condition was satisfactory al though he was six weeks premature. His parents had undergone in vitro fertilization and then genetic screening to find an embryonic unborn child who did not have the genetic defect that had claimed the lives of the couple’s previous two children. (The doctors did not reveal what that defect was.) The baby’s mother had also previously procured an abortion after she learned that her child had the same defective gene.
In the United States, a similar process resulted in the birth this summer of Adam Nash, who was conceived and subjected to genetic screening because of doctors’ hopes that blood from his umbilical cord could be used to treat his older sister, Molly, who was suffering from Fanconi anemia, a rare genetic disease.
“Wrongful birth” suits allowed
Children may sue for damages
The French Cour de Cassation, the country’s highest court of appeal, has ruled that a child born with severe handicaps can sue for the “damages” he suffered by being born rather than aborted.
The parents of Nicolas Perruche—a 17-year-old who is deaf, nearly blind, and retarded—won their appeal of a lawsuit against a doctor and a medical laboratory that failed to identify a case of rubella, which Nicolas’ mother caught while she was pregnant, as likely to cause disabilities. The parents argued that they would have aborted Nicolas if they had known his prognosis.
Opposing a decision for compensation reached by a lower court, the public prosecutor had argued that paying damages to Nicolas would amount to deciding that some lives were not worth living. The prosecution also argued that upholding the appeal could set a precedent for children unhappy with their lives for less serious reasons to also take their parents to court for compensation.
Back to Catholic World Report January 2001 Table of Contents