Psychiatric patient sues for cost of bringing up child

The NHS cannot be made to pay the cost of bringing up a child that a woman with brain damage claims she conceived while staying on a mixed sex psychiatric ward, a judge ruled at the High Court in London last week. But Mr Justice Cooke gave the 30 year old woman permission to appeal.

The case breaks new ground as the first claim for the cost of substitute care by a mother who is completely unable to care for her child. In a …