Idaho couple can’t sue for wrongful birth: court

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An Idaho couple whose child was born with severe defects and later died cannot sue their doctors for a “wrongful birth,” the state’s top court ruled on Wednesday.

Rick and Danika VanVooren argued that their doctors were negligent in not informing them about the birth defects that would have prompted them to terminate the pregnancy. They sued in 2002.

“They assert in each cause of action that, but for the negligence of the defendants, they would have terminated the pregnancy,” the Idaho Supreme Court wrote.

The court then cited a section of Idaho law that bars lawsuits that say but for act or omission of another person a pregnancy would have been aborted.

“This is precisely the type of claim that section 5-334 was designed to prohibit,” the court said in upholding a lower court’s dismissal of the VanVooren lawsuit.

Similar “wrongful birth” lawsuits have come before courts in other U.S. states, some of which have barred such legal actions. However, courts in the Netherlands and France have awarded compensation in cases where a child had severe birth defects.

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