Lead Stories
In France, a deaf, partly blind, mentally retarded 17-year-old boy won a wrongful-birth lawsuit in October against doctors who failed to counsel his parents that the mother’s rubella during pregnancy almost certainly would cause birth defects. In December a Chinese couple was considering a lawsuit against the Tangxia Central Hospital for failing to disclose ultrasound examinations that showed their child, born in October, to have two heads. In January a Texas appeals court reversed a trial court decision that had awarded a couple $42 million for their daughter’s dismal quality of life; born prematurely, she is blind, incontinent, brain damaged, speechless, and paralyzed in three limbs.
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The canine fragrance Oh My Dog, recently put on the market by the French company Dog Generation, retails for about $30 a bottle and provides (according to the label) “an emotional short-cut between dog and man.” And according to an October report in the Baltimore Sun, Susan Wagner continues to pursue her lawsuit against the maker of Paws and Effect, a cologne designed to be sprayed on cats to mask their natural odors. Wagner, who has been suffering serious, recurrent skin problems, charges that the company failed to put a clear enough warning on the package that it was not for humans.
Dignified Deaths
