Wrongful Birth?

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Using that Tay-Sachs example, it's not certainly for the MOTHER's comfort to end such a life. It's for the child's. Die peacefully now or die horribly a while later?

Do you honestly claim that a horribly disabled child does NOT cause much more of a strain to society than a healthy one would? The only way it wouldn't would be to deny all treatment, ending up in a neglected baby followed by a lonely death soon thereafter.

Edit: I actually am with your opinion, as long as there's nothing seriously wrong with the unborn child. Going for abortion for some obscure allergy, asthma, wrong sex or stuff like that is just plain wrong. But there's gotta be a cut-off point somewhere.

 

The more I think about it, it may be criminal for a doctor to do as you suggest. That he would lose his medical license and would no longer be a doctor is virtually assured. But to refuse to answer or willingly withold information that the parents requested may actually be considered criminal. A wrongful birth civil suit may be least of that doctor's problems.

 

Who said anything about an address? Let me re-phrase my comment, then -- tell them that you will not perform the abortion. I'm sure that they can figure out that there are other places they can go to get the procedure.

But if you are a doctor and test results come back, it is incumbent on you to tell the truth about what the test says. What the couple chooses to do with that information is on their heads, not yours. If a doctor cannot in good conscience do that, then he has no business offering those tests. But giving the information does not make you a party to the abortion should they choose to have one.

Who would choose to have a doctor who did not tell them the facts about a situation? Or who refused to disclose facts about tests on a regular basis? You'd lose patients and as has been mentioned before you'd likely lose your licence.

 

@dmc: I'm never for dishonesty, but at the same time I against people being forced to cooperate in any way in what they consider murder, which is in addition to my opinion that abortion generally ranges from homicide to murder with a couple of cases of euthanatic homicide along the way. At any rate, I'd be shot before giving the information, although I would not lie to cover it. Not lying would be in the interest of truth, not in the interest of "abortion rights". Tay-Sachs is awful, but so is the killing of an innocent person who's no threat. Out of the two, the latter is more awful. The euthanatic motivation is not of itself abhorrent, but the result is.

@sir Rechet: There are many people who cost the society more than they bring in. It is justifiable to cut their resources down if there's their own fault in it. But it never is justifiable to kill someone because he's a burden.

@Aldeth: As a rule, it's criminal to withhold medical information. But when you know that information is going to be used to kill someone, you don't do it. Can you imagine a doctor not wanting to give medical information that will enable death penalty in a death penalty state? Now apply that to a pro-life doctor.

@LKD: Duties are subject to prioritising. Life outranks the fullness of information most of the time. If I knew my information would result in the child being aborted, I would have many things to think about, for example whether it would be worth losing my licence and the ability to save more lives. But there is no respect in me for any supposed abortion rights and any instance of willing and knowing cooperation with abortion is materially tantamount to willing and knowing cooperation in homicide. The mitigating factor is that most people these days have lost their sensitivity to the fact that you just simply don't kill human beings, no matter how inconvenient they are to you.

 

To repeat something that has been brought up before: Allowing someone to live with Tay-Saches is killing them. You might as well end their suffering before they have to experience it. Letting someone live with a disease that with painfully destroy them is far worse than euthanasia.