Chitlins are fried intestines and such.

"No form of birth control is foolproof -- anytime two people get it on in a Biblical sense, there are, as we mothers like to say, consequences." --CL

Gee, every time someone dares to say that in here we're branded right-wing fascists. I'm not. I'm just a happy Liberal who takes personal responsibility and doesn't think it too much to ask other adults to do the same, or to teach it to our children. Thanks for printing it, CL.

Why are they blaming the doctor, and not the pharmaceutical company that manufactured a (potentially) faulty drug-deliery system? It's hardly the doctor's fault that the dosage or delivery mechanism wasn't sufficient. That would be like me suing the doctor who wrote me a script for BC.

The only implanted contraceptive I'm aware of is Implanon, the successor to Norplant, and it's a pair of rods as shown in the illustration to the article. The contraceptive patch I'm familiar with is Ortho Evra, the hormonal band-aid that women stick on their bums and arms. I suppose the lay public could also construe a hormonal IUD as bein an "implant".

So what's the "implanted patch"? A doc who'd tried to put a transdermal in someone's arm would be paying up considerably more.

only 10 percent of single-parent households receive government assistance.

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Unless something has changed, this is simply untrue in Germany. Every German household gets a rather substantial allowance per child per month, regardless of income.

The 10% is for total government support.

Seems like the original poster doesn't really know any childless-by-choice folks. There are lots of reasons why someone who likes children and/or works with them might not want any of her own. Many don't mind playing with children in short bursts, for example. I love my nieces, but can only spend about 48 hours with them...I can't imagine dealing with them 24/7. As for a child-friendly but childless-by-choice preschool teacher, taking care of children all day is a job, and she very likely found that going home to a quiet, orderly apartment where ten or fifteen little voices weren't all clamoring at her at once was a great relief.

This poster apparently harbors the attitude that parenthood is inevitable...big deal if birth control fails. It's fortunate that parenthood suited this couple enough that they wanted a second child. But what if it hadn't? There are lots of folks out there who don't want to be parents and know that they shouldn't be parents. Please respect their preferences.

Hasn't this woman ever heard of abortion or adoption? Or just taking responsibility for your own choices? What adult in modern Germany doesn't realize that all contraceptions have a failure rate? And if one kid was too much of a burden, why the hell did they have another?

Why the hell are they blaming anybody? Hasn't it occured to them that sometimes these things just happen?

I'm serious. There's a little concept called "accident", in which it seems people are less and less inclined to believe anymore. EVERYTHING must have a considered and trackable cause. NOTHING ever happens just because of an unfortunate confluence of events. SOMEBODY must be guilty and, not coincidentally, SOMEBODY must pay.

Geez, whatever happened to real life?

In Germany a man cannot get a paternity test without the mother's permission.

Bad law, not highly evolved. I see Carol Lloyd is continuing a Salon tradition of substandard editing and poor fact checking. Let's hear it for more sexist, poorly substantiated bullshit from Broadsheet.

I don't see any substantiation from you either. Cough up the URLs, bud.

Was it ever there? How could a competent doctor insert a contraceptive device and not be able to find it again?

Absolutely nothing makes this medical mistake different from any other medical mistake. The surgeon botches a face lift; the attending triples the psychotropic drug dosage in error; the family doctor, sewing up a deep cut, severs a nerve that results in limited mobility. Yes, mistakes do happen, but why is a woman who wants (and pays for and endures) a safe but invasive contraceptive technique not entitled to the same level of medical care as any other person?

I was appalled at CL's sneering tone: the patient had an "embryonic" career (when does a career finally count?) and was left "chagrined" by the outcome of this "twisted scenario." Chagrined? How about scared and pregnant and without the reserves (remember the "embryonic" career?) to raise her child, but still unwilling to slough off her offspring onto strangers. The mother's motive was "perplexing," as if a woman who eventually wants to conceive should not have the right to choose when and by whom.

I can't believe CL would say that a man is not responsible for the child he fathered, and yet she is saying that a physician should not be held responsible for bungling a critical procedure.

The monetary damages as such are miniscule, compared to the damages that might be awarded in one of the above fictional scenarios. I really don't understand why CL is so intent on slamming the victim, blaming the woman for having sex and then not wanting to rear a child. Now only potenial mothers are allowed to be sexually active? Christian right, you have a new spokeswoman.

CL, you should be ashamed.

This is ridiculous, but only possible in a country like Germany with such a backward view of women and motherhood. The woman could not work because she had a baby. In the US this wouldn't be an argument, but in Germany it unfortunately is.

The point, however, is not that she got compensation for having a baby, but compensation for malpractice. The judges in the case concluded that since the malpractice had "significant financial consequences" for the parents, they should be compensated. It wasn't the usual contraceptive failure that led to her pregnancy. The woman was already 16 weeks pregnant when she discovered that she was pregnant and that the contraceptive implant in her arm had disappeared! The doctor had obviously done something wrong.

By the way, the comment by Parson Jim is correct. In Germany, a man cannot get a paternity test without the mother's permission. If the mother claims that the baby isn't his, or if he suspects that he is not the father, he is just out of luck (of course he can try to get the court to order a paternity test, but this is not easy). German men can of course secretly have a paternity test done, but the results wouldn't be considered in court. Sorry, but I couldn't find any sources in English.

A German man does not automatically have rights as a father when his child is born, even if his name is on the birth certificate. It is the mother who decides if the father will be allowed to see the child. If the father wants to fight her on this, he has to go to court. Of course, even if he isn't allowed to see the child, he could be ordered to pay child support in an amount that makes it possible for the mother to never have a work a day until the child is 18. This is probably also why the father in this case was also compensated. Since the parents of the child in question are no longer together and he now has to pay child support to his ex-girlfriend who is a stay at home single mother.