A recent reply by the Government to a Parliamentary question on the number and cost of so-called 'wrongful birth' cases elicited some startling findings. (1) Government figures show that since 2003, the NHS has paid out more than £95 million on 164 successful claims for damages from parents wanting compensation for the birth of a child. Defence costs for a further 83 claims that were unsuccessful are not included in this figure.

It has been commonly assumed that these kinds of 'wrongful birth' claims are mostly for damages based on the extra cost to parents for raising an unexpectedly disabled child. And in just over half of the successful cases, this has been true.

Claims based on the disability of a child included eight pay-outs to parents for babies born with Down's syndrome. These claims are controversial enough as they reinforce the view that the birth of a child with a disability is a harm for which one may be compensated. Although for some parents there will also be a genuine need for practical support and financial help. However, nearly half of the claims granted were for healthy babies (45 out of 104 closed claims).

'Legal claims in such cases can be brought by the mother of the child who is born with the abnormality on the basis that, had it been detected, she would have been offered counselling and the option of termination and would have chosen to terminate the pregnancy' (emphasis added). (2)

The Government answer reveals that the pay-outs were made for healthy babies born after an 'unwanted pregnancy' (two), 'failed contraception' (eight), 'failed sterilisation' (24), 'inaccurate fertility advice' (one), 'failure to diagnose pregnancy' (one) and for 'failed terminations' (six).

Should the NHS (or anyone) be paying out millions for the birth of healthy babies? Where can a line ever be drawn in this expansion of the right to sue? If claims are successful for 'failed sterilisation and contraception', why not for all other failed contraceptives? If claims are successful for 'inaccurate fertility advice' why not for failure to provide teenagers with contraceptives?

And what effect will these claims have, psychologically, on the children themselves, as they grow up, knowing full well that their birth was agreed to be an expensive 'mistake' and they should never have been born?

The financial cost of 'wrongful birth claims' is in the millions of pounds to the taxpayer, and this is likely to increase. But an even greater price being paid is the reinforcement of a culture that sees the birth of disabled and unplanned children as not just an inconvenient mistake and a financial burden, but to be avoided at all cost. It could hardly be more different to the psalmist's view of children as a blessing, a reward and a gift from the Lord (Psalm 127).