Jury awards nearly $3 million to couple in 'wrongful birth' lawsuit

Oregonian: The money will cover the estimated extra lifetime costs of caring for a child with Down syndrome. Ariel and Deborah Levy sued Legacy Health, claiming that Deborah Levy would have aborted her pregnancy had she known her daughter had the chromosomal abnormality. The lawsuit blames Legacy's Center for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in North Portland and a Legacy lab for allegedly botching the test. 

Their attorney contends that the doctor removed maternal tissue -- not fetal tissue --from Deborah Levy's womb. The suit faults him and lab workers for not recognizing that the tissue was from the mother. According to WebMD, however, chorionic villi are found in the placenta, which is neither baby nor mother.

Editor: So now do parents have to expect to spend an extra $3 million to raise their  children with Down syndrome?