‘Wrongful Births’: The NHS spends millions in compensation… for babies being born

Apr 7, 2017 by Jill

by Andre Woolgar, CMF:

A recent response by the Government to a Parliamentary question on so-called ‘wrongful birth’ cases has revealed some startling findings. Although perhaps ‘shocking’ may be a more appropriate word.

Government figures show that the NHS has paid out more than £114 million since 1995 on 156 successful claims for damages from parents wanting compensation for the birth of a disabled child. Payments over the lifetime of the claim are calculated to reach just under £124 million. This does not include failed vasectomy or sterilisation claims.

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

Such claims are based on the disability of a child, and include several pay-outs to parents for babies born with Down’s Syndrome. The payment for the two cases in which this has occurred has reached almost £7.5 million, with a total of almost £10.5 million calculated over the lifetime of the claims.

These claims are controversial enough as they reinforce the view that the birth of a child with a disability is a harm and a mistake for which one may be compensated. Undoubtedly for some parents there will also be a genuine need for practical support and monetary help. Where there is disability, there must be assistance, but surely the focus should be on the needs of the child rather than legal costs and a compensation mentality.

It is difficult to compare the figures to those released two years ago, due to the different time period involved (current report is 1995 to 2017, while the previous report is 2003 to 2014) and because the current report does not take failed vasectomy or sterilisation claims into account, which explains the discrepancy in numbers of claims. This makes it is difficult to say if the £124m of the new report represents an increase from the £95m of the older one.

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