PARIS, JULY 15, 2001 (Zenit.org).- This country´s highest court of appeal has ruled that disabled children are entitled to compensation if their mothers were not given the chance to abort them, Agence France-Presse reported.
The ruling follows a case brought by three families with physically deformed children, who argued that if doctors had detected the unborn children´s disabilities they would have had abortions instead.
Physicians, activists for the disabled, and pro-life groups have reacted with outrage, describing the decision by the Cour de Cassation as an incentive toward eugenics, news reports said.
The ruling last week upheld a landmark decision which awarded a mentally retarded boy damages last year because he had not been aborted. The case was widely described as establishing in law a disabled child´s «right not to be born.»
The Collective to Stop Discrimination against the Disabled responded angrily. «This is a real act of phobia,» it said. «Now parents are going to be attacked and seen as irresponsible because they gave birth to a handicapped child.»
Doctors say the fear of being sued for a misdiagnosis would encourage them to recommend abortions at the slightest hint of a disability.
«The ruling means that the handicapped have no place in our society,» said Yves Richard, a lawyer representing the medical profession.
