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BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut, November 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – A Stamford doctor who fatally ruptured a baby's membrane while removing an IUD with forceps has agreed to settle a wrongful death suit.

Dr. Corrinne de Cholnoky has agreed to settle with Melanie and Floyd Foster before the case goes to trial. The settlement amount was not disclosed.

The legal significance of the case is that the doctor claimed that the baby's death was not a death at all, because – although she was born alive – the baby was not yet at a “viable” gestational age, and therefore she was not a person. 

State Superior Court Judge Michael Kamp ruled that because medical experts on both sides admitted that the baby was born alive, legally, she was a person. “No Connecticut law provided by the defendants or discovered by the court suggests that there is a viability requirement for infants born alive,” the judge stated.

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The judge said the Connecticut Supreme Court in 2010 decreed that the “born alive rule” is the basic standard in both criminal homicide and civil wrongful death cases. “Where the doctors refer to the birth of a baby, its life and eventual death, one would conclude that the baby was a person, and that person died,” the judge ruled.

As LifeSiteNews reported, de Cholnoky did not check to see if Melanie was pregnant before she used forceps to remove an IUD. According to court documents, the doctor admitted that she ruptured the growing baby's membrane. Too late, de Cholnoky did an ultrasound and found that Melanie was 22 weeks along with a baby girl. Later, Melanie developed complications from the infection, and tiny Annalise Lili Foster was born alive but died less than two hours after birth.

The Fosters sued, saying de Cholnoky failed to exercise reasonable care and was negligent.