PARIS, Dec 6, 01 (LSN.ca/CWNews.com) - Top prenatal doctors in France pledged to strike due to a decision by the country's top court last week, which held that when doctors fail to detect deformities in unborn disabled children and do not suggest abortion to their parents, the doctors can be held liable.
In a letter to the daily Le Monde, 11 specialists at eight hospitals said that from January 1 they would refuse to carry out any ultrasounds and other tests that can show whether an unborn child has any abnormalities. Reuters reports that the doctors hoped many others would join them and pledged to continue the strike until the law was altered.
"(The ruling) encourages doctors to worry about their own protection rather than that of their patient," said the letter. "It is impossible for us now to perform our work, which moreover will become uninsurable very soon." The decision last week reaffirmed a decision of the court made earlier this year. At the time doctors said the fear of being sued for a misdiagnosis would encourage them to recommend abortions at the smallest hint of a disability. "The ruling means that the handicapped have no place in our society," said Yves Richard, a lawyer representing the medical profession. "There is a real risk of this starting a process that ends with the search for the perfect child."
Reuters reports that Jean-Francois Mattei, a doctor and Liberal member of parliament, has drawn up a bill to amend the law making it impossible to seek compensation for having been born. Disability groups and the national Ethics Committee have criticized the court's decision.
Catholic World News Service - Daily News Briefs
6. desember 2001