Dr. ordered to pay - for unwanted baby

lisar wrote: Doctor ordered to pay for unwanted baby
Wed Nov 15, 2006 9:07 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - A court ruling which ordered a gynecologist to pay child support for up to 18 years as compensation for botching a contraceptive implant was condemned by the German media as scandalous on Wednesday.

The Karlsruhe-based federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the doctor must pay his former patient, now a mother of a three-year-old boy, 600 euros ($769) a month because she became pregnant after he implanted her with a contraceptive device. "A child as a case for damages -- this perverse idea has now been confirmed by one of Germany's highest courts," conservative Die Welt daily newspaper wrote in an editorial on Wednesday.

The device is meant to protect against pregnancy for up to three years, but half a year after the operation, the implant could no longer be found in the woman's body, the court said.

While it should be welcomed that a doctor can now be held to account in the same way as a shoddy plumber, the newspaper said, how could a child whose parents had sought damages for its birth ever come to terms with the situation?

"In addition to the highly private inkling that he was not wanted by his parents, he now has official confirmation that he was born by mistake," Die Welt also said.

The award covers the first years of the child's life and also subsequent costs to the age of 18.

The parents, who had known each other six months at the time of the conception, were no longer together, the court said, ruling that the father should also be compensated for the maintenance he was paying toward the child.

The ruling could spark a flood of similar claims against gynecologists, Stern magazine wrote on its Web site.

stella6979 replied: I think this is a little absurd, but I guess the Dr. should have had her sign a waiver or something.

lisar replied: Okay birth control is not 100%. Why would they do this?

stella6979 replied:
That's what I was thinking. Nothing is 100% effective so how can they place the blame on the Dr.? I can understand maybe collecting a sum for having the procedure done wrong, but to make the Dr. pay for the kid til he's 18 just doesn't seem right to me.

mom2my2cuties replied: Because, the birth control alone didn't fail...The doctor botched it - In a sense, this was a fancy way of doing a plain jane Malpractice lawsuit.

stella6979 replied:
Oh I agree about it being a malpractice suit, I just think a lump sum would be better than having this Dr. make a monthly payment.

holley79 replied: All I can say is

1lilpeanut2love replied:
!!!
Geez..............

sparkys2boys replied: It's all just a little sick and twisted to me.

CantWait replied: WOW sounds like that woman might have accidently taken her IUD or whatever it was out

The courts should know as well as the woman, etc, that no birth control is 100%

That poor doctor.

A&A'smommy replied: OMG that poor child..... and no bc is 100% and she should have known that no matter what happens.. no dr. is perfect and I would consider that child a blessing!!!

Calimama replied: Wow.. weird.

MommyToAshley replied: Absurd... bizarre, and just wrong. If she wants to sue for malpractice, then she should do so. She is quite possibly entitled to be awarded a judgement.

But paying child support??? Does the doc get visitation and parental rights too???

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Hmmm... in that case, my doctor should be paying me 2/3 of my costs when it comes to my kids... because 2/3 were "accidents".




******Disclaimer - I'm not saying I don't love my kids... they were just..oopses!

stella6979 replied:
My thoughts exactly.

mom2my2cuties replied: Ok what you guys are missing is a VERY big part of this article.



This isn't a case of the birth control failing. This is a case of the doctor messed up. The woman isn't saying she doesn't love her son, but she certainly wasn't expecting to get pregnant. I also don't think she is even saying she doesn't want her son. I think what she is saying, is "DR Screwup did this improperly, and as a result, I became pregnant and as such am out this or that"

It sounds like she had some sort of vaginal form of birth control that is inserted by the doctor. If there was evidence of the woman tampering with the birth control or removing it herself, they would have taken that into consideration.


There isn't one of you on here that I have come across that if a doctor messed up and caused you a problem medically or whatever, wouldn't sue the heck out of that doctor for Malpractice.

It would be one thing if the woman had the birth control PROPERLY implanted and it didn't work, but that wasn't the case, it was done wrong, and therefore the doctor SHOULD be held liable for his mistake.

And while it might seem wierd to some that they are calling it Child Support and he is paying monthly. But a lot of large settlements are done this way. It's to help not only the doctors insurance, and to protect his license to an extent, AND a lot of large settlements are paid in installments like that.

CantWait replied: Sorry, I still don't agree.

hoosier momma replied: I also do not agree. The only 100% birth control is abstinence. And, when you consider IUD's you are told that in a very small percentage of cases, they can fall out and you would never know it and it has nothing to do with how the doctor inserted it. I think she had very poor judgement. There is a huge difference between suing for malpractice and suing for child support, and the first line of the article calls it child support.

holley79 replied: I still don't agree though. A friend of mine had an IUD inserted and it "came out". Well she ended up pregnant. That's not the doctor's fault. They can only do so much. I would understand if he didn't do the procedure and said he did and she became pregnant but not something to this extent.

Boo&BugsMom replied: Well, if she didn't want to be pregnant maybe she shouldn't have had sex then to begin with! IUD or not, it's never anything that is fool proof, botched or unbotched. I don't understand how he could have botched it. IUD's come loose and things can go wrong just with any foreign object you place inside you. Whose to say it was the doctor and not her body rejecting it or something? I just don't get the whole story. None of it makes sense to me.

MyBabeMaddie replied: Wow that is crazy.

MyBrownEyedBoy replied: I am just a little concerned that the boyfriend is now not responsible for the care of his child. The article stated that the doctor would also pay restitution to the father for back support. Sorry, even if doc did screw up, dad still had something to do with it. That is wrong if he's not responsible to pay as well.

gr33n3y3z replied:
Your so wrong Tish there sorry

If I got preggo bc of something went south so be it its not 100% never will be bc I could have choosen not to have intercourse to advoid it.

So you must not know me very well sorry to disapoint you on this

skinkybaby replied:
I agree, I don't consider having a baby a medical problem. No BC is 100% guaranteed. If I didn't want a baby I'd double up on the BC or better yet not have sex.

Boo&BugsMom replied:
I'd have to agree with Lisa. If I came down with a terminal illness or my life was threatened by something a doctor did, that may be different. However, the only thing that has happend is she got pregnant and the doctor certainly didn't knock her up! I think this is a simple story of someone who saw the perfect opportunity and took advantage of it...something that I would NEVER do!

C&K*s Mommie replied:

cameragirl21 replied: i feel sorry for the child, this mother is sending a loud and clear message to her child that he is unwanted.

punkeemunkee'smom replied: I feel so bad for that child! As for if the doctor is responsible...EVERY medical procedure I have ever had done has come with warnings and disclaimers about its' risks and possible failures-why is this different? The article states that 6 months later the device was not even found in her body I have had friends whos IUDs have slipped but they knew it I am wondering how she did not find it if it did fall out...and if she did know but did not care I think it is really twisted that she is now cashing in on that fact. Here is a thought Quit sleeping with men you don't want to have a baby with As many have said NO birthcontrol is 100% effective so what is next? Lawsuits when the pill or comdoms fail? Give me a break people-try taking some responsibility for your own flippin actions!

This is a whole other topic but lawsuits and fear of judgements like this are exactly why it is so #1 EXPENSIVE to seek medical care and #2 The reason Doctors can't really treat their patients anymore...everything is done by the book instead of by their medical judgement-God forbid they save a life because if they cause a hangnail doing it (and everything is not textbook) there are lawyers out there ready with the paperwork.....

Boo&BugsMom replied: As always Abbie, I totally agree with you!

gr33n3y3z replied:
ty very much very well said

Crystalina replied:

As everyone has already said, bc is not 100% but keeping your legs closed is. Sounds to me like the mother should have thought about that before concieving this child. Now she just wants someone to cover her butt financially. And the father getting compensated also....what a joke.

Botched medical procedure or not the doctor should not financially raise this child. Compensating the mother yes, definatley but that is all.

MyBlueEyedBabies replied: IUD's can come out that is why they tell you to check for the strings every month after your period. If they aren't there your not protected.

I think this is in the running for lame lawsuits with the McDonalds coffee one.

ZandersMama replied: I wonder how many people have a lawsuit against Trojan

Very sad that anyone would cash in on their child like that and risk their childs self esteem, its going to be quite obvious that he is not wanted.

AND, if she didnt want the child that bad, why not adoption?

CantWait replied:
I was just about to bring that up.

My2Beauties replied: Abbie I agree with you 100%. Malpractice insurance is so high right now, this is why we have a huge shortage of OB's right now. I hope that the court laughs in this woman's face and tells her she's ridiculous for thinking this doc is going to pay her anything period. This stuff stirs me up because people are sue happy nowadays. Tish to answer your question, unless a doctor left a surgical tool in me or did something during a surgery or something that caused me severe damage, something horrible I had to endure for a long period of time or for the rest of my life or had me on my deathbed practically, no I wouldn't sue. They are PEOPLE too and they go into that field because they want to help people and heal people. I'd be so freaking scared I'd do something to Pee somebody off if I were a doctor I'd probably get so nervous that I would screw up by accident and get sued