This story from Germany shows how overzealous, successful lawsuits against doctors aren’t limited to the U.S. A couple sued a physician after a contraceptive implant failed, and now the doctor has to pay for the child’s upbringing.
The story accuses the doctor of “botching” the implant, but statistics indicate that isn’t necessarily the case. According to Merck, about 1 in 1,000 women “become pregnant within the first year” of using an implant. If there was some evidence he screwed up, or that other implants he’d done failed, I’d be slightly more sympathetic. Presumably, they were informed of the minor possibility of a pregnancy — no contraceptive method is 100 percent effective.
The article also raises the issue that, because of the lawsuit, the child will forever know it was unwanted.
In addition, what about adoption? (Abortion for pure unwantedness is illegal but not punished in Germany.) If the couple truly didn’t want the child — they’re no longer together – they could have given it away. Instead, they decided to keep it and saddle the doctor with the financial responsibility someone else would have gladly taken. The entire lawsuit is based on an assumption of unwantedness the couple’s post-birth behavior disproves.
Compensation for the expenses of birth, e.g. time off work and hospital bills, would be logical, fair and accurate if the doctor was negligent in some meaningful way. But 18 years of child support is overkill, even if he did truly “botch” the implant.
Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.
Loading ...
1 user commented in " German doctor held liable for contraceptive failure, must pay child support "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWow! Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, eh?
The parties in question did the responsible thing…they sought contraception to prevent unplanned pregnancy. They were SO responsible that they actually sought a method that could not be circumvented in the “heat of the moment” or as a result of memory failure. There is nothing here that indicates that the doctor warned them about a possible contraceptive failure, as the writer presumes…in fact, had the doctor given such a warning and reported such to the judge, wouldn’t he have likely been exonerated?
Why is 18 years of child support overkill? Should the support end before then child reaches its majority? Why shouldn’t the doctor also provide a university education, since he was more responsible than either of the parents for the unplanned conception of this child.
And the operational word here is “unplanned,” not unwanted. Having experienced two unplanned pregnancies, I can attest to the fact that there is a universe of distance between the two. But does the fact that I wanted the children…unplanned though they might have been…free the other responsible party from his obligation to support them? Of course not.
Unplanned is not unwanted…if it was, virtually every baby born prior to the advent of modern contraception would have been unwanted, and that certainly was not the case.
The doc got what he deserved…maybe next time he will make sure to counsel patients about the rate of contraceptive failure with the implants and have them sign and informed consent waiver prior to the procedure. Then, if he botches it again, at least his pocket will be protected and the scorn heaped upon the unwitting mother-to-be for seeking compensation for an unexpected alteration of her life plan will be better deserved.
Leave A Reply