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CANADIAN DOCTOR SUED FOR WRONGFUL BIRTH

VANCOUVER, Dec 10 (LSN) -- Yesterday, the BC Supreme Court forced Dr. Stanley Morrill to pay Murray and Phapphim Krangle $488,575 for having failed to give them information needed to decide to abort their child. Mervyn, the couple's six-year-old son has Down's Syndrome and his parents claim they would have killed him before birth had they known of the disorder.

In finding Morrill liable for the Krangles' claims, Justice Richard Low noted that Ms. Krangle was "in need of timely advice as to genetic testing. Dr. Morrill did not give her that advice and did not ensure that she got it elsewhere."

"Genetic testing" refers to amniocentesis. The procedure involves inserting a needle through the skin of an expectant mother's abdomen into her uterus, and extracting amniotic fluid, which is tested. A finding of a genetic defect then calls for the doctor to offer "genetic counselling" which necessarily includes the option for abortion. In fact, abortion is the only option other than carrying the baby full-term as would one would have without the test.

First conceived in the US in the 70's, wrongful birth claims began in Canada in 1986 when the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled in favour of such a claim. Since then, many similar cases have come before the courts. In June of 1996, two Ottawa doctors were found negligent for wrongful births. Dr. Arlene Rosenbloom and Dr. Gary Viner were ordered to pay $2,918,965 to a woman who claimed she would have aborted her children had she been told of their genetic defects while in utero.

Last year, Canadian Press reported that Dr. Garry Krepart, of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada, stated "If you sue because a doctor missed a broken arm, you get $5,000,...But if you have a baby with cerebral palsy, whether in fact it was the result of an event at the delivery or whether it happened prior to the delivery, the settlements can be $7 million to $10 million." Krepart reported that doctor's premiums are unreasonably high because of the expensive settlements awarded against doctors who work with pregnancies and because of an unusually high rate of litigation. Hence in Ontario, obstetricians and gynecologists have announced they will no longer deliver babies or pre-natal care as of January 1, 1998.

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