What a ghastly situation. Seems the doctors could have done a better job of testing, but they are human, and humans mess things up. Let's hope the money goes into a trust to provide for the daughter once the parents are gone. Like you, Leigh, I wonder how she will feel when she learns her parents would have aborted her.

This is terribly sad but I think that even though the parents come across as heartless, that they were brave to file this case. It sounds like the clinic was negligent. That little girl deserves all that money coming her way, it's just really sad that they had to announce that they would have chosen to terminate the pregnancy. Great article, I'll be thinking about this little girl long after I submit this comment.

I think they had every right to sue and I'm glad they won. Medical negligence/ malpractice is a very real occurrence in our society, and although these tests are being analyzed and reported by humans, and they are human after all, it doesn't excuse the major screw up. These type of institutions exist because the information they provide is supposed to be accurate. The type of genetic tests that most pregnant women undergo are not like this unless they are high risk and request this extensive testing. These tests are 100% accurate because they literally take tissue samples from the fetus. They can tell all sorts of things about a child - any kind of genetic marker can be discovered. These tests are excessively expensive, so a person getting one should be assured they are paying for the highest level of service. If you had work done on your car and the technician was negligent and didn't screw something in right, resulting in an accident that paralyzed you or killed someone, the technician/business would be libel for negligence. Same thing here. To the point of whether this child will ever know that her parents may have terminated her, well, that depends on how high functioning she is - she may never understand. In any case, thank goodness her parents won this so they could take care of her and hopefully leave $$ for her care when they're gone. When a business screws up like this, they should be sued. Hopefully they'll be more careful in the future.

The Levy's are right, in the sense that the medical establishment has to be held accountable for tests and medical decisions that have enormous results. Having said that, when a friend of mine gave birth over 20 years ago to a Downs Syndrome child, she and her husband decided to make that little girl's life as sweet and full as possible. I heard recently from a mutual friend that they have never regretted that decision as April has brought much unexpected joy and enlightenment to their lives.

Perhaps we should also ask what we would wish if we were that unborn child. Do we want a chance a life - even if it's going to be different in many ways from the "norm"? For me, I choose life.

I wish for the sake of all of the Levys' children that this could have been spun by the media as simply a malpractice suit, or maybe that it could have not been covered in the press at all.

It is a difficult situation, indeed. I had an "all fired up" response when I first heard of this case; I was angry that they would sue over a test that is not guaranteed anyway. Then I thought about the fact that the money to raise a special needs child could really make a difference in the quality of life for everyone involved. My dad is a medical mal-practice attorney, and he helps people all the time who have suffered because of a medical mistake. I guess this case just feels different because of the nature of pregnancy--you just never know how healthy your child will be when she is born, no matter what. When I was pregnant with both of my kids, I tried to prepare my heart for complete acceptance. I don't know how I would have felt had I gone through all of the testing that the Levy family went through, and then found that the doctors were not only wrong to re-assure me, but had also made critical mistakes in the testing process. Let's just hope that the family has fully moved on and feels love and gratitude for their daughter.

"They may have won the $2.9 million dollars but in my mind, there was no real winner in this sad case."

There actually was a winner in this, the Levy's lawyer. His pocketbook just got considerably larger.

Hopefully this family has what they need now to help raise their children without resentments. maybe the money will help them to feel compensated.

Like you said, genetic tests are not 100% accurate. And likely they signed a paper acknowledging that fact. Sometimes the opposite happens, a family receives the news that they may have a special needs child and they continue the pregnancy anyway and then their child is fine. Should they be able to sue because they were told wrong?

If you do genetic testing on your already born chidren and the tests don't turn out to your liking, should you have the right to terminate their life. Heck, no.

The losers here are their children because how do you explain to your kid, "Well, if something had just been a little wrong with you, we would not have even had you to begin with". I don't think you can explain it.

Absolutely the doctors should be sued for negligence,it's the only way to ensure they are far more careful next time. People undergo and rely on the integrity of these tests for a reason. I would terminate a downs syndrome child myself, but that is due to the belief that this is a hard world to thrive in and we need all our faculties just to survive. It's not fair on a child whom you cannot guarantee that you will be alive for the duration of their life to care for them and it's unfair to leave them to cope alone or worse, to be institutionalized.

It's not necessarily a cold,unloving gesture to terminate such a pregnancy,but wanting to give one's child every fair opportunity in life. And kids with such severe defects are not given any advantages making life far crueler for them.

I just want to bring up the fact that raising a special needs child takes a tremendous amount of resources. I can only imagine, because I am not in their position, that the choice to terminate a pregnancy must have been in part due to the resources,or lack thereof, that the Levys had. Hopefully now, they DO have the resources they need in order to give this child everything that she needs and deserves to have a full life, and to give the family the tremendous support they need to raise her. I do think that doctors should be held accountable for their mistakes. If the parents knew they were ill-equiped to raise a child with special needs, then why shouldn't they get compensated in order to be able to raise her? I feel for these parents, as no one can really look from the outside and truly understand what their life is like. It is a sad story all the way around.

As a Daddy to a special needs son, some of the comments are staggering, even sickening...there's no way we would ever have aborted our son if we would have known about his disease. That's why we didn't have any of the testing performed, the results 1) Weren't guaranteed and 2) It would not have made a difference on the outcome of the pregnancy.