Kentucky wisely rejects "wrongful birth" claims.
On July 7, 2017 the Kentucky Court of Appeals issued a decision in Patel v. Game NO. 2016-CA-000782-MR 2017 affirming the Warren County Circuit Court. The trial court correctly ruled the Plaintiffs had no cause of action to sue for the "missed opportunity" to abort their baby who they later learned suffered from congenital birth defects.
The Plaintiffs argued that had their radiologist not been negligent in reading the ultrasound, they would have known sooner that their baby had birth defects. They argued they would have aborted the child instead of allowing it to be born. The Court of Appeals relied on the Kentucky Supreme Court's reasoning in a prior case, explaining, "... we are unwilling to equate the loss of an abortion opportunity resulting in a genetically or congenitally impaired human life, even severely impaired, with a cognizable legal injury Grubbs v, Barbourville Family Health, 120 S.W.3d at 689. "
That succinctly says it all. The Court of Appeals got it right in denying these claims.
