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_WORLD WATCH______________________________
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France ________________
A right not to be born?
Doctors assail court decision
The highest appeals court in France has ruled that children suffering from Down’s syndrome have a legal right never to have been born.
The Cour de Cassation ruled that a doctor is liable for all the costs of the specialized care a Down’s-syndrome child will require, since the doctor in the test case failed to warn an expectant mother that her unborn child showed symptoms of the condition. The mother was thus deprived of the option of abortion, the court reasoned.
Bishop André Vingt-Trois of Tours, the president of the French bishops’ family committee, commented on the case: “I think with great sadness of all families who have welcomed Down’s-syndrome children, who have showered them with love and received great love in return. This ruling amounts to a declaration that such love was worthless.” Echoing his comments, Xavier Mirabel, a spokesman for handicapped people, said: “Certain judges still believe that it is better to be dead than to be handicapped.”
d a group of doctors threatened to go on strike if the court’s decision is not overturned. In a letter to the daily Le Monde, 11 physicians specializing in prenatal diagnosis said that that after January 1 they would refuse to carry out any ultrasounds and other tests that might show whether an unborn child has any abnormalities. The doctors invited other physicians to join them, and pledged to continue the strike until the court’s decision is overturned.
The judicial decision as it stands “encourages doctors to worry about their own protection rather than that of their patient,” said the letter in Le Monde. “It is impossible for us now to perform our work—which, moreover, will become uninsurable very soon.”
Jean-Francois Mattei, a doctor and member
of parliament, has reportedly drawn up a bill to amend the relevant law, making
it impossible to seek compensation for having been born. Back to Catholic World Report
January 2002 Table of Contents