THE Australian Federation of Right to Life Associations (AFRTLA) has called on state and federal governments to develop uniform legislation to protect both doctors and unborn children where the child has a disability.
The association made its call following a case in France, where the Government overturned a court decreed ‘right not to be born’.
This ‘right’ for disabled babies set a precedent which raised concerns in the French medical community that doctors could be sued each time they missed detecting a disability in a foetus.
It also caused concern among disability groups, who said discrimination was implicit in the court’s ruling.
AFRTLA spokeswoman Mary Joseph said there was growing concern in Australia about the rising costs of medical indemnity insurance.
‘The law has long affirmed that the life of a child is precious, that he or she has inherent dignity and value as a human being, by rightly rejecting such concepts as a ‘right not to be born,’ she said.
Director of the Church’s Queensland Bioethics Centre, Ray Campbell, said there had been nothing in Australia similar to the French court verdict.
But there were two possibilities in Australia – cases alleging ‘wrongful birth’ or ‘wrongful life’.
Wrongful birth usually involved a case where sterilisation had failed and the parents sought compensation for that. Such a case was before the court in Brisbane at the moment.
