Posted on 07/12/2022 6:21:48 AM PDT by Morgana
A man in Egypt has filed a lawsuit against his own wife because their baby was born with Down syndrome.
According to Middle East Monitor, Ghada Al-Absi told Al-Arabiya that she was “surprised” by the lawsuit which was filed in February. She explained, “He asked for financial compensation and the annulment of our marriage contract after I had given birth to our daughter, Sidra, who had Down[] syndrome and died soon after her birth.”
In the lawsuit, which the court rejected, the man said he had been “psychologically and financially harmed by this marriage.” He claimed that his wife had lied to him and had known throughout the pregnancy that their daughter had Down syndrome, which Al-Absi has said is not true. She claimed that during her marriage she has been the victim of “psychological abuse” at the hands of her husband.
The husband also claimed that he has filed additional lawsuits requesting that his wife’s novel be prevented from being published because it bears the name of their daughter.
This is not the first time that the mishandling of a diagnosis by doctors has caused a parent to want to abandon their child. In 2015, a woman left her husband and their son after the boy was born with Down syndrome. The husband, Samuel Forrest, said that she gave him an ultimatum. If he wanted to keep the baby, she would divorce him. If they placed the baby in an orphanage, she would stay. He refused to place their son for adoption. Just weeks later, however, the wife, Ruzan Forrest, changed her mind and returned to her family.
Doctors had told her that her son would never walk or talk or feed himself, which had left her distraught. She realized that the diagnosis was not as dire as the doctors made it appear, and she is now “grateful” that her family gave her a second chance.
A year after her son’s birth she said, “At first I was very, very scared because I didn’t know what Down syndrome was like. Doctors said he would be like a vegetable. It was very scary. I think I was also very selfish and then there was depression… all of that together.”
“I love him very much,” she added. “One year ago, I couldn’t imagine life with him and now, I can’t really imagine my life without him. He’s changed me so much. I can say I’m a different person now.”
Families have also begun to file wrongful birth lawsuits against doctors when their child is born with Down syndrome despite undergoing testing that appeared to show their child was not at high risk of having the health condition. These parents claim they would have killed their child by abortion had they known about a Down syndrome diagnosis prior to birth.
Misinformation about Down syndrome and the misuse of prenatal testing has been used to justify the mass-slaughtering of people with Down syndrome in the womb. While there is not an official statistic, a 2012 study by medical experts estimated the abortion rate for children with Down syndrome is 67% in the U.S. It is higher in other nations, such as Iceland where the rate is nearly 100%.
Well, the husband sounds like a real sweetie
It would be interesting to know the religion this Egyptian follows, if any, and if he is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
That genetic predisposition for Downs could have come from either parent.
When this guy gets a new wife, it would be ironic if DNA tests revealed he is the parent carry that gene, not his ex wife the novelist.
Is the husband worried the child is smarter than he?
Many folks woild love to raise a child with needs because they can’t have children. That father is a scumbag. (And per my comment above, kids witn ds are often smart- one girl basical,y taught herself to read just by listening and following along in the books, noting i guess what sohnds went with which letters, and one day her parents came in and she was teaching her younger sister, to the astonishment of her parents) the father on the other hand sounds like a moron)
I know people who have Downs syndrome children. They wouldn’t trade them for the world.
My neighbor has a down’s daughter who is over 40 now. She is extremely helpful and prepares all ingredients for her mom’s meals, and she entertains often. She accompanies her mom and siblings on all trips, even internationally, and is a normal, accepted and deeply loved member of the family. She can sometimes be moody, but is usually very upbeat and happy, and loved to dance. They are Orthodox Jews, and a rabbi there said Down’s people are holier than most, “closer to the angels,” a beautiful sentiment.
What a sweetheart of a husband. The woman would be far better off without a jerk like that. I guarantee you HE is a greater millstone around her neck than the Down’s child would ever be.
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