A Wrongful Life Lawsuit?

Finally, the impossible has happened. I am speechless.

--A Boston woman who gave birth after a failed abortion has filed a lawsuit against two doctors and Planned Parenthood seeking the costs of raising her child.

The complaint was filed by Jennifer Raper, 45, last week in Suffolk Superior Court and still must be screened by a special panel before it can proceed to trial.

Raper claimed in the three-page medical malpractice suit that she found out she was pregnant in March 2004 and decided to have an abortion for financial reasons.

Dr. Allison Bryant, a physician working for Planned Parenthood at the time, performed the procedure on April 9, 2004, but it "was not done properly, causing the plaintiff to remain pregnant," according to the complaint.

Raper then went to see Dr. Benjamin Eleonu at Boston Medical Center in July 2004, and he failed to detect the pregnancy even though she was 20 weeks pregnant at the time, the lawsuit alleges.

It was only when Raper went to the New England Medical Center emergency room for treatment of pelvic pain in late September that year that she found out she was pregnant, the suit said.

She gave birth to a daughter on Dec. 7, 2004.

She is seeking damages, including child-rearing costs.

Read the whole story here. Keep your barf bags handy.

Okay, first things first. Jennifer Raper has been wronged. I mean, I can't tell for sure, but is the part about that doctor who failed to diagnose her pregnancy at twenty weeks lawsuit-speak for "Dr. Benjamin Eleonu knew she was pregnant, but didn't tell her because abortion was still an option at that point and he's anti-choice"? If so, that sucks.

However, no matter how wronged she feels, this lawsuit is a bad bad BAD idea. Because, win or lose, her kid is going to find out about it someday, and there aren't enough psychotropic drugs on the planet to prevent the explosion when THAT happens.

Besides, she doesn't sound like she's all that keen on the "parenting" gig anyway. Otherwise she wouldn't have tried to abort her pregnancy in the first place, let alone filed a lawsuit asking for child-rearing costs.

So, in Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People parlance, I'm thinking there's an excellent "third alternative" here. Howzabout the hospitals and doctors involved give her a little money for her trouble, and she places the kid for adoption, so it can have a loving home and good parents.

Is that an awesome idea, or what? Yeah, I thought so too.

Let's just hope Ms. Raper sees the wisdom of using some portion of her nominal settlement for a tubal ligation.

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