Why was she allowed to be born, and why was her mother allowed to give birth to her? A young woman asked these questions to London High Court while filing a case against the physician of her mother. She recently won the legal battle against the doctor! As no one has ever heard of such an incident, it has triggered a sensation across the globe.

Evie Toombes filed the case against Dr Philip Mitchell, who had treated her mother, Caroline, two decades ago. The Sun recently reported that 20-year-old Evie was born with Spina Bifida, a rare condition that did not allow her spinal cord to develop properly in the womb, causing permanent disability. Due to this spinal problem, Evie has to resort to a tube while moving around. She dragged Dr Mitchell to the court because of this.

Evie believes that the doctor did not give proper advice to her mother during pregnancy. The English girl has accused the general practitioner of not informing Caroline, her mother, about how to ward of a condition that she was diagnosed with in the womb. According to Evie, the doctor would have advised her mother to take folic acid in order to avoid the child being born in a damaged state. In that case, her mother might not want to give birth to her, claimed the young girl. She stressed: “I should never have been born.”

The London High Court has described this case as unprecedented, with the Judge saying that if Evie’s mother had been notified at the appropriate time, she could have delayed her pregnancy, and could give birth to a healthy baby. Caroline (50), who became pregnant in 2001, too, made the same allegation against the doctor. Evie’s lawyer argued that had Caroline put off getting pregnant, she would have had a normal, healthy baby. As expected, the doctor rejected the allegation, claiming that he had given Caroline “reasonable advice“.

Meanwhile, the Court accepted Evie’s argument, and ordered Dr Mitchell to pay millions in damages to the girl. According to doctors, Evie’s mobility is very limited because of her physical condition, and she would be dependent on a wheelchair more and more as she grows older. Currently, she works at Nottingham University, educating children about invisible illnesses. She also has her own website. The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan Markle met Evie when the latter won the Inspiration Young Person Award at a charity event in 2018.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das