After hearing more about Willow, the lawyer has another suggestion: sue Charlotte’s obstetrician for wrongful birth. The doctors and social services were just doing their jobs.

The lawyer he contacts says they don’t have a case. Sean O’Keefe is furious when he gets home to New Hampshire, not just because his fellow police officers teased him about being arrested, but because of the way he and his family were treated by the hospital staff. Willow ended up in a plaster spica cast that made it difficult for her to sit in a normal position and she’d be in the cast for months. Amelia forgot to get the letter from Willow’s doctor stating she had OI so the doctors in Florida called social services because they believed Willow was abused. Her mom and dad raced to the hospital emergency room and ended up in jail.

Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI): Also known as Brittle Bone Disease, genetic disorder, bones break easily from little or no apparent cause.Ī trip to Disney World for vacation is everything Amelia O’Keefe dreamed of, until Willow slipped on a paper napkin and fell, breaking both legs. Two families in crisis over wrongful birth lawsuit. treads the difficult and often painful territory of a family in crisis with care and insight.

It is impossible not to be held spellbound by the way she forces us to think, hard, about right and wrong.'. 'Picoult has become a master - almost a clairvoyant - at targeting hot issues and writing highly readable page-turners about them. Handle with Care is an absorbing narrative which also questions the basis of medical ethics and of personal morality. And the obstetrician she's suing isn't just her physician - she's her best friend. As the family struggles to cover medical expenses, her mother Charlotte decides to file a wrongful birth lawsuit against her obstetrician for the compensation which might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow.īut it means that Charlotte has to say in a court of law that she would have terminated the pregnancy if she'd known about the disability in advance. Willow O'Keefe is born with osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, which means she will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, and a lifetime of pain. What rights do parents or doctors have to terminate a life? How disabled is too disabled? As a parent, how far would you go to save someone you love? When faced with the reality of a child who will be disabled, at which point should an obstetrician counsel termination? Should a parent have the right to make that choice? And as a parent, how far would you go to take care of someone you love? Explores the moral dilemmas faced by the parents of a severely disabled child.

Handle with care jodi picoult reviews