3 Comments

Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. Come on, people–what is a doctor to do in this instance? Birth a newborn without a heartbeat and then run over and shove some resuscitation-consent forms into the parents’ face? No! You start right away, lest the newborn die and then get sued for your delay.

So, the doctor does his or her best and gets sued anyway, and the parents try to stick the doctor with the bill. The child’s disability is costly and regretful I’d imagine, but probably not the doctor’s fault and the Washington Supreme Court agrees.

And, for those, “see, the system works” people–because the Supreme Court ultimately rejected the argument, I’d imagine over $100K in defense costs were incurred to defend this meritless case. The initial court probably ruled against the plaintiff, the appeals court and now the Supreme Court–all at the doctor’s expense. Defending such appeals is expensive and one reason why medical malpractice insurance is costly.

And, other than “hard” costs–what about the doctor’s guilt or regret, if even unjustified, shame or anger for having been drug down in this litigation. Ever wonder why health care is expensive? This is one reason.

This seems to be an attempt at discrimination of the handicapped in its severest form. No wonder that neither the parents’ nor their lawyer’s names appeared in the article. If this child’s handicap is not mental, what would the parents say to their child when asked why they wanted him/her dead? I hope the WA Supreme Court makes them pay the doctors’ legal bills!

I wonder, though. If the child was born without a heartbeat, was s/he in fact stillborn? What was the doctor’s moral obligation to resuscitate?