Not Perfect? You Have No Right to Life

I posted a few days ago about an Oregon couple who are suing because the results of a test of their pre-born baby did not show that she had Down Syndrome.  If they had known this, they would have killed the baby while it was still legal so as not to be burdened with raising a handicapped child.

Well, the verdict came in last Friday, and the jury unanimously voted to give these parents $3 million for a "wrongful birth."  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there is such a thing as wrongful birth in our society - babies who have no right being born.   And because they insist on being born anyway, the price tag has been set at $3 million. 

This is an unbelievably horrific consequence of abortion.  The child in this particular case is mentally handicapped, so hopefully she will never know or understand that she has no right to life.  But her brothers know, and everyone else in the world now knows it. 

Here is the story:

Jury awards nearly $3 million to Portland-area couple in 'wrongful birth' lawsuit against Legacy Health

A jury this afternoon awarded nearly $3 million to a Portland-area couple whose daughter was born with Down syndrome even though a prenatal test found she didn't have the chromosomal abnormality.

The jury voted 12-0, taking less than six hours before reaching a verdict in the case of Ariel and Deborah Levy vs. Legacy Health System. The decision capped a 10-day highly emotional trial in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

The money will cover the estimated extra lifetime costs of caring for a child with Down syndrome.

Deborah Levy, who had held her emotions in check throughout the trial, began to cry as Judge Karin Immergut read the verdict. The couple nodded and mouthed "thank you" as jurors filed out of the courtroom. A few nodded back, smiled or reached out a hand toward the Levys. One juror visibly held back tears. Another wished them peace.  [Does anyone care about the child?  Do the jurors realize that by rendering this decision, they have said this child should never have been born, that she has no right to life?]

After jurors left the room, Ariel and Deborah Levy shared a long embrace.The couple sued Legacy Health, claiming that Deborah Levy would have aborted her pregnancy had she known her daughter had the chromosomal abnormality. The lawsuit blames Legacy's Center for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in North Portland and a Legacy lab for allegedly botching the test.  

The case was one of just a handful of so-called "wrongful birth" suits estimated to be filed each year in the United States, bioethics experts say. It was one of an even rarer few to go to trial -- and garner a multi-million dollar verdict. In the process, the case stirred passionate public debate nationally and even internationally. The judge prohibited media in the courtroom from photographing or recording images of the couple, whose attorney said had received death threats.

Experts say so few parents choose to file wrongful birth suits because it forces them to take an awkward position: They must be willing to say on the record that they would have aborted the pregnancy, and that they feel a burden -- albeit financial -- of raising the child.  [At least there are some people who still realize the terrible message this sends to the child and to the rest of the world.]

The Levys' attorney, David K. Miller, said his clients deeply love their daughter but worried about being portrayed as heartless. [Who would ever think that a couple who would have preferred to kill their baby is "heartless"??] Miller said they sued because they worried about providing all that their daughter would need over her lifetime. [And just how have people down through history provided for their children?  They didn't go around suing people.]  Experts testified that she will continue to need speech and physical therapy and face a concerning list of possible medical problems over her lifetime. Professionals have told the Levys that she will likely never be able to live independently, or earn a living.

According to several studies, 89 percent or more of expectant mothers who learned their children would have Down syndrome chose to terminate the pregnancies.

Jurors said they found Legacy Health negligent on five fronts, including that the doctor who performed the prenatal test took too small of a sample from Levy's womb to be useful. They concluded that employees -- including the doctor who took the sample and lab workers who analyzed it -- failed to communicate, leading to the erroneous result.

"I don't think there's a winner in this," said one juror, who like others, declined to be named because of the high profile of the case.  [Ah, but there is a winner in this case - his name is Satan, who has been highly served.]

The Levys spoke of the challenges of raising a special-needs child, including concerns about her health, her ability to communicate and whether she'll get the attention she needs once she starts public-school kindergarten in the fall.

"I have two children," the juror said, "and it's hard to watch another mother, another family, go through all that."  [Is there anyone who cares about the child and what she has to go through??]

The Levys were the parents of two young boys when in November 2006 they were surprised to learn Deborah Levy was pregnant again. Because she was 34, she and her husband were concerned about the possibility of genetic disorders. Experts testified that about 1 in 250 women that age give birth to a baby with Down syndrome. A first-trimester screening estimated Deborah Levy's chances were even higher: 1 in 130.

Roughly 13 weeks into her pregnancy, Deborah Levy went to Legacy's Center for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in North Portland, where Dr. Thomas Jenkins performed a prenatal test called chorionic villus sampling, or CVS for short. A Legacy lab tested a small amount of tissue that the doctor had removed from Levy's womb. The results showed the Levy's daughter had a normal chromosomal profile.

Although in the following weeks two ultrasounds showed abnormalities that sometimes indicate Down syndrome, the Levys testified they were assured that their daughter would not have the chromosomal abnormality. Legacy staff did not advise them to get an amniocentesis, which is another prenatal test that detects Down syndrome.

Within a week of their daughter's birth, they were devastated to find out that the girl, Kalanit, did indeed have Down syndrome.

The Levys contended that Dr. Thomas Jenkins removed maternal tissue -- not fetal tissue -- during the CVS procedure. The suit alleged that Jenkins and lab workers didn't recognize that the tissue was from the mother.

Legacy's attorney, Robert Keating, called on experts who said the CVS was properly done, and that the results showed the girl has a normal genetic profile because she has mosiac Down syndrome, meaning a significant number of her cells don't contain an extra 21st chromosome.

The Levys are Jewish.  One would think that they would be even more aware than the average person that what they proposed to do with this child is exactly what Hitler did in Germany - kill all "undesirables."  They and all who think like them are no better than Hitler or any other mass killer.  They have decided they are the ones who make the decision about who lives and who dies.  They have no right to ever criticize Hitler or anyone else like him. 

God bless this little girl and all others like her, those whom our society has decided are undesirable and have no right to life.