While I'm still in this mood...
LP Presents: The Parents of the Year Award
I just finished reading a very distressing article about Australia's first Wrongful Life lawsuit.
It seems that Alexia Harrington, 24, is suing a Dr. Paul Stephens, because "[h]is negligence resulted in the birth of a child who is 'profoundly disabled.'"
Alexia was born deaf, blind, spastic and retarded.
Alexia's mother matter of factly states that had she known of the possibility of birth defects resulting from Rubella, she would have had an abortion.
Wow. What an amazing thing to tell your kid. "If we'd known you were going to be a burden, we would have ripped you out before you could inconvenience us." Well, apparently it's put the zap on Alexia's head. Sur-fucking-prise.
If you don't think that you should be on Earth, shouldn't you kill yourself? And if you won't kill youself, isn't that an implicit statement that it is better to be alive, regardless?
Oh yeah. She's deaf, blind, spastic and retarded. She isn't suing anybody. Her parents are. The suit is under Alexia's name, because the statute of limitations has expired on her parents filing. How fucking sick is that? To have your daughter file a motion against her own existence?
I pray that I'm never in the position to even have to think about those kinds of choices. Perhaps I am simply not qualified to pass judgement on someone who is in a far more difficult situation than I.
Or perhaps her parents are just fucking monsters.
posted by KOM @ 4:03:00 PM
12 Comments
12 Comments:
Daaaaaamn. That is waaaay effed up.
Although, in a completely different context, I find the phrase "deaf, blind, spastic, and retarded" highly amusing. I'd like to sneak it into a post sometime.
Oh, and dropping f-bombs like dandruff usually isn't my style, but I used it for effect. I guess you got that. Thanks!
That is just entirely too depressing for a poor pregnant woman to be reading. That poor baby. She so desperately needs love, and she's probably put in a crib all day to cry. I'm not sure which is worse- that her parents are actually suing someone saying she shouldn't exist, or that there's a name for this type of lawsuit. Holy crap. "Wrongful Life"??? Thank God the child is retarded and not just deaf & blind, so she'll never understand what her parents have done.
And what exactly are they hoping to do? Make post-birth abortions legal? (I didn't read the article...you don't you need to answer that, just being snippy)
I need to stop thinking about that now.
Personally I find it APPALLING.
However, Australia is "new" to this "lets sue everyone for anything" phenomenon. Once upon a time it was "oh yeah okay, well, no worries mate, we'll deal with it". I hate to say this, but Australians are learning about litigation from the Americans who sue for dropping a toothpick and trauma resulting from it.
The parents had 7 years to sue, the child has 21. Obviously the child is under 21 so they're using her for money.
Australians never used to be this way, and it's really really sad that it is happening here now. Insurance premiums have gone so sky high from stupid lawsuits that there is no fun anymore either. Kids playgrounds are being torn down. Day care centres can't afford the insurance for the kids.
It's a sad sad world, and far sadder for that girl you mentioned being used in this way. No one accepts responsibilities for their own actions anymore, everyone ELSE is to blame. *sigh*
Spastic and retarded?!?
So your saying I can go to Australia and file for George Dubya?
Hell, 85% of the U.S. could file this damn thing.
Spastic and retarded......I'm thinking the parents are the spastic and retarded ones.
Fuckers.
No wonder doctors don't want to touch obstetrics with a ten foot speculum.
So, basically the parents are saying it would have been better for the doctor to say to them their child was beyond all hope, even if he wasn't sure? I would think after this lawsuit doctors will do just that to cover their asses. Since when are doctor's all seeing and all knowing?
I'm sorry, but I could not "terminate" a pregnancy regardless of the situation. If I have sex, then I am accepting the responsibility that I might become pregnant, and all that entails.
I wasn't raised to expect other people to take responsibilty for my actions.
Am I a monster because I'm not appalled by this? Not because it's not awful (it is), but I learned about wrongful life lawsuits in law school. They're pretty rare and not very sucessful.
Meh.
I'm a cynic now. Just excuse me. ;)
Abso-Phucing-lutey amazing. I can't even believe how heartless people can be sometimes... to tell your child that, and then to put the lawsuit in her name.
Can someone in Australia, in the name of decency, find a large, heavy, blunt didgeridoo and beat these people before they find a way to be even more apalling??
You hit the nail on the head (as usual) KOM. I appreciated Robyn's comments about choice and responsibility. Not many people think like that anymore.
Each one of my kids is an amazing miracle in my life. I can't even conceive the possibility of having aborted any of them. Even when our newborn was diagnosed with the possibility of Trisomy-18.
These people in Australia set a new low mark for humanity in general.
Laura - Precisely.But even if it just about the money and they love their daughter, how can they say those things?
KF - Honestly, it can be amusing in a Helen Keller joke kind of way.
PSUM - She's 24 now, so whatever did or didn't happen in the crib is over. Still, it is very depressing.
Squishi - Go ahead, join the bandwagon. All bad things started in the US. ;)
J - Dubya's Australian? The conspiracy theories are starting to make sense...
R - Well said.
Reese - You're already a lawyer. To call you a monster would be redundant. ;) (Where's my rimshot?)
Nilo - As indirectly stated by Squishi and Reese, this has happened before. It's just the first time that I've heard about it, so I need to heap all of my scorn on Alexia's parents. If you buy, I'll fly (to Australia to beat them with a didgereedoo).
Here at LP, I'm all about the love.
LOL! I should be offended, but I'm a lawyer so I think it's funny and a little true all at the same time. :D
Oh i'm happy to go bash them with a digeridoo, but it would mean i would have to go to a touristy shop and buy one which is too embarassing.
Normal Australians don't have them, they're honestly only tourist items.
Oh, and they're hollow and kind of flimsy too.
Would bashing them with an iron fence post do instead? What were their names again? Are they in Sydney?
Show me the way.... show me the way!
ps: I like Americans, i just hate the American style litigation that is cropping up here *sigh*
Yes, our legal system seems to be totally mired in frivolous lawsuits. My favorite is the guy right now who is trying to sue Home Depot because he says he got glued to a toilet seat and nobody came to help him for 45 minutes. Funny, he had an almost identical lawsuit against another company some years ago. What are the odds that one guy would get glued to a toilet seat twice. He is seeking 3 million dollars in damages.
Another guy says he got glued to a toilet seat at Home Depot here in CA. He only wants to recover the money it cost him for the ambulance and emergency room.
Further proof that I shouldn't comment on little or no sleep...
And I the guy who glued himself to a toilet seat? Seriously, how does one do that without knowing? I'm pretty darn sure I'd remember if I put glue on my toilet seat, and I'd especially remember if I put that glue right on my bum.
I've been told that there is some something or other out there here that is going to make it difficult if not impossible to sue for stupid crap like that. Like blaming fast-food restaurants for your poor health, or suing Chevrolet if someone in a Chevy runs you down. Stupid, stupid people.
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