Baby Doe v. The Prenatal Clinic Norris Armstrong University of Georgia-Athens

Baby Doe v. The Prenatal Clinic John looked at the baby squirming in his arms. He and his wife, Jane, had been trying to have kids for a couple of years and had finally been successful. The pregnancy was uneventful and, though the delivery took longer they either of them would have liked, everyone seemed to be doing fine. This was a new experience for John. Everything about the child he was holding seemed so small and delicate. Even so, some things seemed unusual. For example, the baby looked a little cross-eyed, and its face seemed a little flat when he looked the baby from the side. Also, the baby’s hands and feet were even smaller than he would have expected, and the hands had a strong crease that ran across the middle of the palms. John realized he was probably imagining things. After all, though he had a younger brother, he was definitely no expert on newborn babies.

One week later… But one week later John and Jane sat in the clinic’s conference room in stunned silence. “I had to run some tests to be certain,” said their doctor. “However, the results confirmed what I suspected. Your child has Down syndrome. I am afraid there is no cure. However, early intervention can improve the outcome you can expect. I can give you the names and numbers for several organizations that can give you more information and advice. There are other resources you can try as well………………” John and Jane did not hear much of what the doctor said after the diagnosis. The only thought that kept running through their minds was, “How could this have happened?”

The Case You’ve been hired by a law firm to serve as an expert witness for John and Jane’s case. To help your client and to appropriately inform the court, you will need to explain what actually causes Down syndrome to the jury. You will also need to explain whether or not the clinic could have done anything that contributed to the baby’s condition. Since it was likely to have been many years since most of the jurors had studied biology, one of the things you probably have to do is give them a crash course on some basic biology. For starters, what exactly is Down syndrome?

Getting Ready The first court date for John and Jane’s case is coming up and it is time to start organizing your testimony. You need to help the jury determine whether the doctors at the clinic may have done something to cause the baby to have the incorrect number of chromosomes. A good place to start might be to describe how cells get the right number of chromosomes in the first place.

What went wrong? Now that you’ve explained to the jury how cells normally receive the correct number of chromosomes, you need to explain whether this did not happen with John and Jane’s baby because of something the clinic doctor’s may have done. What can cause a cell to inherit the incorrect number of chromosomes?

Case closed? Now comes the trickiest part of the trial. Should the clinic have alerted the couple that something might be wrong before the baby was delivered? How could the doctors have known that the baby might have be born with Down syndrome?