Woman sues doctors after failed abortion

[UGAalum94]

Wouldn't a more appropriate analogy be a doctor surgically attaching an extra leg, as opposed to the amputation comparison? Instead of missing something that she can't replace, she gained something that she's elected to keep.

If she were suing for damages related to pain and suffering in terms of the pregnancy and birth, I could sort of see it. But no one is making her keep the kid that she intended to abort. To me that seem like an elected decision very unlike the amputation example.

It's just so weird: how could she and doctors that she visited not know she was 20 weeks pregnant?

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

Wouldn't a more appropriate analogy be a doctor surgically attaching an extra leg, as opposed to the amputation comparison? Instead of missing something that she can't replace, she gained something that she's elected to keep.

If we're critiquing analogies, yours doesn't work simply because it doesn't make sense. Is attaching this extra leg an accident or was it intentional? Why is the person choosing to keep this 3rd leg instead of removing it?

Let's say she opts for adoption. Could she sue for emotional damage that having a child that won't know her can cause?

[UGAalum94]

Oh, I know it doesn't make sense, but neither does giving birth to a child equate with amputating the wrong limb.

Although she was the victim of a botched medical procedure and a separate error in telling her she wasn't pregnant, she is now choosing to keep the child. An amputee cannot choose a course of action post surgery that basically allows him or her to return to the pre-surgery status.* She could have had she had the child and given it up.

*I think she is entitled to some compensation for the malpractice. I think that there were damages in having to carry the child she didn't want and give birth. But I don't think that the doctors should be responsible for the living expenses of the kid, seeing that she could avoid that obligation herself if she choose to give the child up.

It's kind hard for me to imagine why giving up the child for adoption would be psychologically more damaging than having aborted, especially more damaging in a way that would mean that she was entitled to ongoing compensation.