Personal Injury Law

Civil Lawsuits are the Only Option for Victims of Dr. Kermit Gosnell

By Michael Monheit

A society needs to protect its weakest individuals. That especially includes the unborn. And when the government fails to protect us from harm, we must protect ourselves. This is one of the lessons to be learned from the horrific harm that has been brought about by the atrocious actions of Dr. Kermit Gosnell and his medical house of horrors, the clinic known as The Women's Medical Society. Gosnell appears to have been a problem for years, but only this week was this brought to the public's attention through the conclusion of a Grand Jury investigation and indictment.

The failure of public agencies to prevent harm is one of the reasons why our civil justice system is so important and why it is to be cherished and protected. We need to be able to assert our own rights and to protect ourselves. Our client, the family of Karna Mongar, and others who have been harmed by Dr. Gosnell have no recourse but to seek accountability through the civil justice system. Our governmental agencies did not prevent Dr. Gosnell from causing great harm, despite years of complaints and warnings. Only through civil suits can the families of those harmed now be compensated.

In the past week Dr. Gosnell was indicted by a grand jury for the death of Karna Mongar. Gosnell ran a clinic called the Women's Medical Society. It was located in West Philadelphia. But more than indicting Gosnell, the grand jury went further and concluded that governmental failures allowed Gosnell to operate without being properly monitored.

In its report the grand jury had unusually strong language about the government and its role in the tragedies committed at Gosnell's abortion clinic. Specifically, the grand jury report states that "Most appalling of all, the Department of Health's neglect of abortion patients' safety and of Pennsylvania laws is not inadvertent: It is by design." (Grand Jury Report p. 138)

When an agency such as The Department of Health fails in its duty to monitor abortion clinics, problems like those seen with Dr. Gosnell are allwed to occur. The Department appears to have ignored very specific complaints and failed to conduct inspections from 1993 to 2010.

As a result, women and children died. As a result, Karna Mongar is no longer with us.

I want to know what you think about this tragedy and what should be done to improve health care for others so that something like this never happens again. How can we improve the monitoring of clinics like Gosnell's? What is wrong with our institutions and laws that this could occur? Please share your comments below.

Full post as published by Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyer on January 22, 2011 (boomark / email).