Woman who would have aborted Down syndrome baby wins suit against British health service
The United Kingdom’s National Health Service will have to pay a woman who did not want to give birth to a baby with Down syndrome after a court ruled in her favor.
Edyta Mordel, a 33-year-old woman who gave birth to a child with Down syndrome in 2015, sued the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust for failing to properly screen the unborn baby.
Mordel and her partner would have aborted the baby had they known it had the genetic condition, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation.
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According to the legal arguments, Mordel asked for a Down syndrome screening at first, but when later asked by a sonographer, she declined a screening and thus did not get one.
The High Court in London ruled on Tuesday that the medical officials, including the sonographer, “failed to discharge their duty” by not seeking better clarification over whether Mordel, in fact, wanted a screening.
“The claimant probably would have proceeded to invasive testing had she been told that there was a high risk of Down's syndrome,” ruled the court, as reported by the BBC.
“[She] was a relatively young mother and I think that at the end of the day the fear that she might be carrying a child with Down's syndrome would, at least for her, have tipped the balance.”
The National Health Service may have to pay a sum as high as the equivalent of $245,000 to Mordel for failure to give the screening.
In comments made to the court, Mordel stated that she would have planned to have the abortion because she had worked with someone with Down syndrome and did not want a child with similar challenges.
“I saw how difficult his life is, and I would not have continued my pregnancy,” stated Mordel, as reported by the New York Post on Wednesday.
“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.”
It is common practice in the United States and Western Europe for women pregnant with children diagnosed with Down syndrome to terminate their pregnancies.
According to a 2017 CBS News report, 67 percent of Down syndrome babies in the United States are aborted. In Iceland, nearly 100 percent of such pregnancies end in abortion.
Pro-life groups, among them the American Center for Law & Justice, have denounced these practices as examples of “evil eugenics.”
"The abortion industry is once again using abortion to accomplish an evil eugenics agenda worldwide. One nation even claims to have used abortion to eradicate Down syndrome — proudly slaughtering innocent babies," stated the ACLJ in 2017.
