Mom who would have aborted son if she knew he had Down syndrome set to get $245K payout after suing for 'wrongful birth'
A British woman could receive nearly $245,000 from the country’s National Health Service after she said she would have aborted her son if she'd known he had Down syndrome, after a court ruled in her favor.
Polish-born Edyta Mordel, 33, who lives in Reading, Berkshire, brought a lawsuit against the national health care system over the apparently "wrongful birth" of her son Alexander, who is now 4, the New York Post reports.
According to doctors, Mordel's 2014 pregnancy was unplanned and she had herself declined a Down syndrome screening that is usually offered between 10 to 14 weeks of pregnancy. However, the judge found the sonographer in charge of the screening had not obtained an "informed consent" from the expectant mother to skip the test.
According to the judge, the worker “knew, or ought to have known, Ms. Mordel had indicated provisionally she wanted Down screening" and that the then-pregnant woman hadn’t processed the question properly when asked by the sonographer if she actually wanted the exam. At the time, Mordel had said “No” to the screening just as a reflex response, the judge ruled.
Furthermore, the judge called the sonographer's initial question "abrupt' and that she should have followed up further. “Nothing I have said should be interpreted as suggesting that the birth of a child with Down syndrome must be seen as unwelcome,” the judge insisted.
Mordel told the court she did not want her child to struggle throughout his life like others with Down syndrome did, per the report.
“I saw how difficult his life is, and I would not have continued my pregnancy,” she said. “I would not have wanted a disabled child, and I would not have wanted my child to suffer the way disabled people suffer. I wouldn’t want to have brought my child into the world like that.”