Thread: Couple awarded $2.9 million for the birth of their Down Syndrome child

This makes me physically ill.

Couple Wins Suit, Doc Didn't Suggest Aborting Baby With Down Syndrome | LifeNews.com

A couple in Oregon has been awarded $2.9 million because they would have aborted their little girl had they known she had Down Syndrome. Deborah and Ariel Levy told an Oregon court that prenatal testing they received said little Kalanit did not have Down Syndrome. The Levy said that they were devastated when Kalanit was diagnosed after she was born. $2.9 million for saying you would have killed your child in the womb if you only had known.


The Levys insist that they were only suing for funds to help care for Kalanit. What about caring for her mental and emotional health? How devastating would it be to know your parents stood up in a court of law and told anyone who would listen that they would have ended your life if they had known your genetic make-up. And then were awarded millions....

I feel sorry for that little girl.

This is pretty awful, although their physician definitely was at fault... to make the argument that you would have aborted your daughter if she was diagnosed with Downs isn't very sympathetic to say the least.

Still, I can see why'd they sue.

Originally Posted by AClockworkGrape

This is pretty awful, although their physician definitely was at fault... to make the argument that you would have aborted your daughter if she was diagnosed with Downs isn't very sympathetic to say the least.

Still, I can see why'd they sue.

How was it the physician's fault? No form of testing is 100% accurate, unless they can somehow show that he administered the test in an incompetent manner.

Originally Posted by Josie

This makes me physically ill.

Couple Wins Suit, Doc Didn't Suggest Aborting Baby With Down Syndrome | LifeNews.com

A couple in Oregon has been awarded $2.9 million because they would have aborted their little girl had they known she had Down Syndrome. Deborah and Ariel Levy told an Oregon court that prenatal testing they received said little Kalanit did not have Down Syndrome. The Levy said that they were devastated when Kalanit was diagnosed after she was born. $2.9 million for saying you would have killed your child in the womb if you only had known.


The Levys insist that they were only suing for funds to help care for Kalanit. What about caring for her mental and emotional health? How devastating would it be to know your parents stood up in a court of law and told anyone who would listen that they would have ended your life if they had known your genetic make-up. And then were awarded millions....

I feel sorry for that little girl.

If the doctors told the parents specifically that the child did not have Down's Syndrome, had I been on that jury, I would have found in the Plaintiffs' favor...but I question why the parents didn't include the lab in their lawsuit. There is a specific test for Down's Syndrome (also catches other abnormalities and can sex the baby as well) called amniocentesis. It's either yes or no. If the doctor didn't bother to read the results or if the lab results were wrong, then I completely understand.

Several states have laws protecting physicians from what they call "wrongful birth lawsuits." Maybe more should. Hell, maybe they all should, I don't know. But parents have been electing to abort Down's Syndrome babies for years -- parents who would never think of abortion under any other circumstance.

The heartbreak of aborting a two-month old fetus doesn't even come close to the lifetime of heartbreak/heartaches these parents will have as they try to give their child as normal a life as possible. It never ends...as they age, they begin to fear the inevitable: "What is going to happen to our child when we're no longer here to take care of her?"

Originally Posted by MaggieD

If the doctors told the parents specifically that the child did not have Down's Syndrome, had I been on that jury, I would have found in the Plaintiffs' favor...but I question why the parents didn't include the lab in their lawsuit. There is a specific test for Down's Syndrome (also catches other abnormalities and can sex the baby as well) called amniocentesis. It's either yes or no. If the doctor didn't bother to read the results or if the lab results were wrong, then I completely understand.

Several states have laws protecting physicians from what they call "wrongful birth lawsuits." Maybe more should. Hell, maybe they all should, I don't know. But parents have been electing to abort Down's Syndrome babies for years -- parents who would never think of abortion under any other circumstance.

The heartbreak of aborting a two-month old fetus doesn't even come close to the lifetime of heartbreak/heartaches these parents will have as they try to give their child as normal a life as possible. It never ends...as they age, they begin to fear the inevitable: "What is going to happen to our child when we're no longer here to take care of her?"

Another thought: $2.9 million. After taxes, that'll net them $1.9 million. Attorney takes at least a third. So now the family has $1.2 million. The best scenerio for that little girl is that she have a stay-at-home mom. If that $1.2 million means that her mother will be able to be at home with her for the next 35 years...that is most definitely in the best interests of that child. ($34,000 a year may make that possible.)

...

Way to fail SO HARD, Oregon.

Well then: that money should be *with* the child - not the parents, yes?

The child should be removed from an obviously unloving and uncaring family environment and put into a foster home where that money would certianly go to supporting her.

Originally Posted by Aunt Spiker

Well then: that money should be *with* the child - not the parents, yes?

The child should be removed from an obviously unloving and uncaring family environment and put into a foster home where that money would certianly go to supporting her.

No. It should be available for the child through her parents. I wouldn't put a dog into our country's sorry excuse for foster care. There are no guarantees. And a real nice million-dollar endowment? OMG. I can't bear to think about it.

Obviously unloving and uncaring family environment? Where the heck do you get off saying that? Good God. And, if I remember right, you're ProChoice. WTF?

I actually had signed off and remembered else I'd like to share re Josie's concerns. Hadn't thought about it in years. After my dad has his stroke, combined with severe physical disabilities came a "lost filter" for what he was thinking. If he was thinking it, he said it; and never thought of how it effected others. Like a very young child. He wasn't cruel...it was "normal" for him and we all understood. Now for the story.

I was talking to my dad about eleven years ago and he said, "MaggieD, I am sooo proud of you. I'm so glad your mom couldn't get an abortion." I said, "What?" He said, "The doctor said she was too far along, and he wouldn't do it. But she wanted to. We just weren't ready." So in some ways, I'm that little girl.

Did it shock me? Yes, it did. Took me some "processing time" to put it in perspective. But a few days later, and I couldn't have cared less. I love my dear ole' mom with all my heart -- and she loves me more.

Don't be so quick to judge. Not in this instance.

Regardless of my stance on abortion - I do not support using children as a pawn to get rich quick. That's just foul.

They said "we would have aborted her if we knew - now we want money for forcing us to bear a child who we should have killed, pay up" - obviously they don't love her. Obviously they loath her, see her as a burden, a mere inconvenience - a curse. I think they're a risk to her and to leave her in their care is insane. I don't think they remotely care for her. If you care about your children you don't use them to snaggle millions because you didn't abort them.

Leave them with her? She's doomed to suffer endlessly and be tortured and maltreated due to their cancerous spite of her. Who will be there to defend her? Trust her mother who regrets letting her live? Don't tell me that now they've been financially 'compensated for their misery' they'll look at her and be happy with her.

My parents discussed abortion. I was an oops-baby. Does it bother me? Not in the slightest.

I didn't exist at the time when they were having that discussion. They were not discussing killing me the human being, their daughter. They were discussing aborting some tissue that would eventually develop enough to house me. There's a big difference between those two things. And the fact that they had that discussion did not result in them being unloving once I actually existed.

Had they chosen abortion, it's not as though I'd ever know the difference, because again, there was no me. It's not like I could feel one way or the other about having never existed. Having children is not a decision to take lightly. Frankly, good on them for discussing all their options when they found themselves with an unplanned pregnancy on their hands.

The doctor lied to them about the health of the pregnancy. He either saw that the fetus had Down's and lied directly, or didn't look/didn't do the test and lied blindly. Either way, hiding or fabricating medical information is not ok. And yes, they have the right to make informed decisions about a pregnancy. Especially since they requested information, were lied to, and the result of that lie is that they are going to have a much heavier financial burden than they planned on.