Children with disabilities began to sue for being allowed to be born

Israeli citizens with birth defects are increasingly suing the medical authorities for allowing them to be born.

To date, such lawsuits are already about six hundred.

The question of the value of the lives of people who have limited opportunities is extremely important. If this situation does not change, doctors will begin to exercise excessive caution in interpreting diagnostic tests and will recommend interrupting even a healthy pregnancy at the first suspicion of a defect.

On the one hand, it is understandable - negligent doctors doomed parents to endless expenses associated with caring for the disabled. In September 2011, a married couple from California won a claim for $ 4.5 million - experts could not determine that the child will be born without legs and one hand.

In Israel the situation is different. People themselves are suing for being allowed to be born. In this case, the parents of children act as witnesses, they say, our offspring should not be born better.

The government was interested in this problem. A special committee has been set up to study this issue. He is led by Abraham Steinberg, a rabbi, a specialist in medical ethics at the Hebrew University.

One of the first successful processes in this field was in 1980 in California; a man sued for being born with a neurodegenerative disease - a disease of Thea - Sachs. In Israel, a similar precedent arose in 1987. Meanwhile, the cases of "unjustified existence" of a person (wrongful life) in many countries are prohibited. In the United States, this kind of cases are considered only by four states.

In Israel, these problems arose due to the fashion for genetic testing. "To date, there is a whole system for finding the ideal child," said Carmel Shalev, a human rights and bioethics specialist at the University of Haifa. "Everyone wants healthy children and often pays doctors to get genetic tests before they are laid, and as a result, abuse occurs ..."

The popularity of genetic tests is partly related to the popularity of marriages between close relatives in Israel. The fact is that many settlements in Israel were founded only a few generations ago by a small number of people who still live with one large family and marry each other. In addition, representatives of different religions shun each other. And since each person carries a certain number of defective genes, marriage with a blood relative increases the risk of autosomal recessive disorders, which results in the birth of children with Down syndrome, deafness, cystic fibrosis in healthy parents ... If both parents have one copy of " defective "gene, the probability of a child with a defect increases by 4 times.

Therefore, Israel offers a wide range of prenatal screening. In addition, it is permissible to interrupt a viable pregnancy for health reasons. Even in orthodox communities, you can have an abortion if you suspect a Down syndrome.

If the child is born and submits to the court, then for cystic fibrosis and congenital deafness, monetary compensation is on average 4.5 million shekels (9.6 million hryvnia). Now, a lawsuit is being considered about the syndrome of breaking X-chromosome, which can bring a person 10 million shekels (21.4 million hryvnia).

After several such trials, the Israeli community of obstetrics and gynecology advised the Supreme Court of Israel not to treat all cases equally. Do not equate the fundamental difficulties with teaching or performing basic life functions (food intake, toilet) to a shortage of several fingers ...

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