A court in France has ruled that a child with Down syndrome is entitled to damages for having been born because certain judges in the high court of appeal still think it is better to be dead than handicapped.
The boy's parents had already received money for medical negligence, but the appeals court has now ordered the sum to be substantially increased. The boy, who has been named only as Lionel, was born with Down syndrome in 1995. Five years later, a court awarded his parents damages of around $100,000 because a gynecologist had not spotted the signs of Down syndrome during the pregnancy.
Now, France's highest court has ruled that those damages should be substantially increased because his parents would have had an abortion had they known he would be born with a disability.
Disability-rights groups are angry that judges continue to decide that it is better to be dead than handicapped. The case has also alarmed doctors, who say the growing number of lawsuits is putting pressure on them to order pregnancies to be terminated, even when there is only the slightest doubt.
Commenting on the case, The bishop of Tours, André Vingt-Trois, the president of the French Catholic Church family committee, “I think with great sadness of all families who have welcomed Down's 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 the bishop's comments, Xavier Mirabel, of the Collective against Handiphobia, said: “Certain judges still believe that it is better to be dead than to be handicapped.”
See the coverage by the London Independent and the BBC.
(Agape Press and LifeSite News contributed to this update.)
