Doctor ordered to pay for unwanted baby

[auppie]

Is this the beginning of the end of contraception? If doctors retain a financial liability for failed contraception, maybe they won’t prescribe/encourage its use. (Wishful thinking, I know)

Doctor ordered to pay for unwanted baby
Wed Nov 15, 2006 9:06am ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - A court ruling which ordered a gynecologist to pay child support for up to 18 years as compensation for botching a contraceptive implant was condemned by the German media as scandalous on Wednesday.

The Karlsruhe-based federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the doctor must pay his former patient, now a mother of a three-year-old boy, 600 euros ($769) a month because she became pregnant after he implanted her with a contraceptive device. “A child as a case for damages – this perverse idea has now been confirmed by one of Germany’s highest courts,” conservative Die Welt daily newspaper wrote in an editorial on Wednesday.

today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-11-15T140459Z_01_N15385573_RTRUKOC_0_US-CHILD-COMPENSATION.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-L3-Oddly+Enough+NewsNews-3

 

[kim3260]

This is just plain crazy, the only method 100 per cent effective is abstience. Whether she is Catholic or not is not really the issue but when are these law suits going to stop.
Not only should she lose the case someone should remove that poor child from a mother who openly says she did want him!
Imagine in a few years how that child will feel when he reads this.

 

[Scottgun]

I would certainly like to see litigation against drug companies for their unhealthy birth control products on the same level as the litigation brought against tobacco companies.

 

[a_cermak]

I think the problem here is not that the contraception failed as a method, but that its insertion was botched. In other words, malpractice. And that malpractice resulted in a child conceived. It’s fair to make the doctor pay for his malpractice. Though the mother probably takes some joy in her 3 year old as well.

 

[mary_bobo]

This is just plain crazy, the only method 100 per cent effective is abstience. Whether she is Catholic or not is not really the issue but when are these law suits going to stop.
Not only should she lose the case someone should remove that poor child from a mother who openly says she did want him!
Imagine in a few years how that child will feel when he reads this.

You are absolutely right about the only 100% effective means of birth control is abstinence. I cannot imagine a physician who does not tell a patient this before he prescribes any form of birth control. Unfortunately we live in a litiginous society that sues at the drop of a hat. You gotta look at these ridiculous settlements to figure out why medical care is so costly.

 

[estesbob]

There’ve also been several cases of women who sued their doctor because the abortion they were having resulted in a live birth. They wanted the doctor to support the child. How would you like to be the child of a mother like that?

 

[auppie]

I think the problem here is not that the contraception failed as a method, but that its insertion was botched. In other words, malpractice. And that malpractice resulted in a child conceived. It’s fair to make the doctor pay for his malpractice. Though the mother probably takes some joy in her 3 year old as well.

Fair yes, for falling under malpractice, however, child support doesn’t equate to malpractice. Child support will last for 18 years.

The point is that it is possible more doctors will look at this case and decide not to perform such procedures anymore. Either that or all malpractice insurance premiums will go up, and pretty much force the doctors to give up those procedures.

 

[auppie]

There’ve also been several cases of women who sued their doctor because the abortion they were having resulted in a live birth. They wanted the doctor to support the child. How would you like to be the child of a mother like that?

I wouldn’t want to be the child at all. But, couldn’t that mother have put the child up for adoption…oh, wait, there’s no money in that, is there?

 

[WanderAimlessly]

The point is that it is possible more doctors will look at this case and decide not to perform such procedures anymore. Either that or all malpractice insurance premiums will go up, and pretty much force the doctors to give up those procedures.

And that is nesessarily a bad thing? One less contraceptive method we will have to battle.

 

[auppie]

And that is nesessarily a bad thing? One less contraceptive method we will have to battle.

Absolutely not a bad thing at all.

 

[beckers]

I wouldn’t want to be the child at all. But, couldn’t that mother have put the child up for adoption…oh, wait, there’s no money in that, is there?

I was thinking the same thing. If she didn’t want the child then adoption is an option.

Also Does this mean the doctor gets visitation rights??

Does this open the door for suing Planned Parenthood because their condoms and BC fail often enough that it’s leds to pregency and therfore they should be responsible for all child care cost?

 

[auppie]

I was thinking the same thing. If she didn’t want the child then adoption is an option.

Also Does this mean the doctor gets visitation rights??

Does this open the door for suing Planned Parenthood because their condoms and BC fail often enough that it’s leds to pregency and therfore they should be responsible for all child care cost?

That is an interesting theory about Planned Parenthood. However, how do we get the US to acknowledge a German court ruling…have to think on that one for a bit.

 

[a_cermak]

Does this open the door for suing Planned Parenthood because their condoms and BC fail often enough that it’s leds to pregency and therfore they should be responsible for all child care cost?

No, because in this case it wasn’t one of the normal contraception failures. It was a clear cut case of a botched insertion. If you actually read the info that comes with your Depo Provera or what not, I’m sure it spells out exactly what the risks are including getting pregnant. But if a doctor injects a woman with an MMR vaccine and tells her its Depo Provera and she winds up pregnant, seems like she’d have a good case against him.

Now in this case, I find it interesting that the mother chose to give birth once she found out she was pregnant. This would seem to indicate a good heart anyway.

 

[auppie]

No, because in this case it wasn’t one of the normal contraception failures. It was a clear cut case of a botched insertion. If you actually read the info that comes with your Depo Provera or what not, I’m sure it spells out exactly what the risks are including getting pregnant. But if a doctor injects a woman with an MMR vaccine and tells her its Depo Provera and she winds up pregnant, seems like she’d have a good case against him.

Now in this case, I find it interesting that the mother chose to give birth once she found out she was pregnant. This would seem to indicate a good heart anyway.

Unfortunately, we do not know the details of the case. Was it a botched insertion, did the woman have the device removed by another physician, and that is why it isn’t showing up, did the woman perhaps actually desire a child?

There is a disorder called Munchausen Syndrome in which a person makes him or herself seem ill in order to get attention and nurturing. It would be very sad if this were the case.

Who really wins here? Certainly not the child. Please pray for him.

 

[beckers]

No, because in this case it wasn’t one of the normal contraception failures. It was a clear cut case of a botched insertion. If you actually read the info that comes with your Depo Provera or what not, I’m sure it spells out exactly what the risks are including getting pregnant. But if a doctor injects a woman with an MMR vaccine and tells her its Depo Provera and she winds up pregnant, seems like she’d have a good case against him.

Now in this case, I find it interesting that the mother chose to give birth once she found out she was pregnant. This would seem to indicate a good heart anyway.

If that is the case then wouldn’t it be considered a malpractice suit? Why sue for the child care?