Parents in Hospital Lawsuit Offer Deal

from the National Post, by Joseph Brean, June 23rd, 2009. [NB: this doesn't fit completely with my own understanding of the case]

TORONTO – The small claims court lawsuit over the controversial 2005 death in infancy of Annie Farlow at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children was thrown into confusion yesterday when her parents, citing a “change of position,” dropped their opposition to a full-fledged Superior Court trial, but requested to be immune from any future order to pay the hospital’s costs, and offered to drop the case in exchange for a meeting with top hospital administrators.

Timothy Farlow told Judge Thea Herman that a number of recent events have convinced him and his wife, Barbara, that the systemic problems they believe led to Annie’s death at age three months, after complications from the genetic disorder Trisomy 13, have been largely resolved, and their goal of effecting change has been achieved.

The Farlows are suing Sick Kids and two doctors for $10,000, the maximum small claim, over alleged negligence and malpractice. Sick Kids and the two defendant doctors, pediatrician Dr. Michael Weinstein and critical care specialist Dr. Christopher Parshuram, are not seeking costs from the Farlows over their current motion to elevate the case into Superior Court. But Judge Herman said she is likely powerless to prohibit some future trial judge from ordering the Farlows to pay costs.

Read the full story here. For more on the broader context of the story, see the Justice for Annie Facebook group or search the What Sorts Blog.

A child’s death, a legal odyssey

from the National Post, by Joseph Brean, June 22nd, 2009:

When Barbara Farlow stands, self-represented, in a Toronto courtroom this morning to hear a judge’s decision in her $10,000 Small Claims Court action against Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children over the controversial 2005 death of her baby Annie, there are two equally dramatic possibilities.

Judge Thea Herman is to decide on a request by Sick Kids and two defendant doctors to elevate the case to Ontario Superior Court, with its stricter procedural safeguards and rules of evidence. If Mrs. Farlow wins, the case will proceed as a “small claim,” and two doctors at Canada’s top pediatric hospital will not only have to defend against allegations they deliberately killed a baby because she had a fatal genetic abnormality, but they will do so in a forum designed for minor disputes over unpaid bills, encroaching fences and overhanging trees.

Read the full story here.  For more on the broader context of the story, see the Justice for Annie Facebook group or search the What Sorts Blog.

Vehmas and Sobsey commentaries: now captioned

Below are the short commentaries–now closed captioned–delivered by Professors Simo Vehmas and Dick Sobsey as part of a panel discussion on the theme The Modern Pursuit of Human Perfection: Defining Who is Worthy of  Life.

Bioethical Reflections on Disability, Medicine, and Family Life (Simo Vehmas)

Decisions and Dishonesty in Medicine (Dick Sobsey)

Simo is one of Finland’s leading bioethicists who joined us for the panel discussion, while Dick is one of the world’s authorities on violence and disability and runs the ICAD blog.  The short panel presentations that are the basis for these commentaries–by Wendy Macdonald, Sam Sansalone, and Colleen Campbell–can be heard and viewed (now that they are also closed captioned)–in this post, which also contains more information about the event as a whole.  These should be useful to some of you for teaching, for community discussion, or just for private reflection on the ways in which eugenic or newgenic thinking can be found immersed in ongoing medical practices and cultures surrounding the treatment of people with disabilities.

Next up: the audience-panel interactions, which I’ll post in the next week.