A doctor in Austria will be forced to pay out tens of thousands of dollars to parents angry their child was born with a disability, and they were not given the chance to have an abortion.
Kleine Zeitung reported that the parents, who were not named, were excited about the pregnancy. But when their daughter was born, they were furious to find that she had a physical disability: a missing left arm, a shortened collarbone, and a “malformed” chest and shoulder area. Though nothing in the report indicated the child would have a shortened life span, the parents nevertheless sued over their inability to abort her.
“The doctor overlooked the child’s severe disability. If the diagnosis was correct, the parents would have decided to terminate the pregnancy,” the parents’ attorney, Karin Prutsch-Lang, said.
The case went so far as the Austrian Supreme Court, which ruled in the parents’ favor. As Kleine Zeitung said:
“if the prenatal diagnostician had paid due attention, he could have recognized during the first trimester ultrasound screening” that there was a severe physical disability. If he had acted lege artis – i.e. according to the rules of medical art – and informed the parents about the disability of their unborn child, they would have decided on an abortion, it is said.
The highest judges emphasize that this is about the parents’ right to decide autonomously whether, firstly, they want a child and, secondly, whether, given their life situation, they are prepared and able to raise a disabled child according to their needs.
READ: Couple wins wrongful birth settlement after daughter is born with Down syndrome
As Prutsch-Lang further explained, this decision could have enormous consequences. “The OGH confirms that doctors are liable for the full maintenance costs of the child, regardless of the child’s state of health, if the birth could have been prevented through professional information or treatment,” she said.
The doctor will now have to pay all costs for the child, and has already been made to pay around $83,000. “In the future, further claims amounting to several hundred thousand euros will be made for the parents of the disabled child,” Prutsch-Lang said. “This ruling could have far-reaching implications for medical practice and patient rights.”
Wrongful birth lawsuits are a disturbing legal trend, in which parents hijack prenatal testing — a pro-life tool that is meant to ensure preborn children receive the health care they need while still in the womb — as a means to weed out children they feel are not worthy of life. If a doctor does not offer them this opportunity to have an abortion, then they can be held accountable, as this Austrian doctor has unfortunately found out.
