“But I feel very bitter towards the health authority, for myself and John, for letting the case drag on.”I’ve been very stressed and the whole court ordeal has been awful.”The failure rate for the 40,000 sterilisations that are performed on women in the UK each year, is around one in 200. But now, although she has little time to do anything but care for him, she does not regret his birth.”I would not be without John; he has been a tower of strength,” she said yesterday. He will never be able to work.The constant strain of caring for John has cost Mrs Taylor a marriage, a home and a career: she is separated from John’s father, her second husband, and has had to move house as well as giving up her nursing career to become a full-time carer.She admits, candidly, that when John was born she resented him for almost killing her. John, now 10, has autism, epilepsy and asthma, the mental age of a child half his age, behavioural problems and the social skills of a three-year- old.He is a day pupil at a special school and will need full-time care for the rest of his life. Yesterday, 10 years after his unexpected arrival, Mrs Taylor won a record pounds 1.3m damages for his “wrongful birth”, against Shropshire Health Authority.
Mrs Taylor became pregnant with John, her fifth child, seven months after she was sterilised in December 1987.John was born severely disabled in April 1989, after a traumatic delivery. That judgment was overturned at appeal, when Lord McClusky said: “To treat parenthood as a wholly unblemished blessing is to ignore the realities of experience.”The law lords yesterday allowed an appeal by the health board and held that the birth of a healthy, though unwanted, baby could not form the basis of a compensation claim for the cost of raising the child..

GAIL TAYLOR loves her youngest son, John, very much, despite doing her best to prevent his birth. He is a “happy little boy” who likes playing with toy trains, especially Thomas the Tank Engine. The lords allowed Mrs McFarlane to claim up to pounds 10,000 for her own personal pain, distress and loss resulting from the unwanted pregnancy.The couple’s case had been rejected by the Court of Session in Edinburgh. It brings joy and sorrow, blessing and responsibility.” He added: “It is morally offensive to regard a normal, healthy baby as more trouble and expense than it is worth.”The McFarlanes did not go away entirely empty-handed. Twenty couples involved in similar cases were thought to be awaiting the ruling.Giving judgment, Lord Millett said: “In my opinion, the law must take the birth of a normal, healthy baby to be a blessing, not a detriment In truth, it is a mixed blessing. They told the parents of a seven-year-old girl conceived after the father had a vasectomy that they could not pursue a medical negligence claim for the expense of bringing her up.
George McFarlane, 48, and his wife Laura, 44, from Arbroath, Scotland, had lodged a pounds 100,000 claim against the Tayside health board, claiming that doctors had negligently advised them that the vasectomy had been successful.But in a landmark ruling the law lords blocked their claim, ruling out any similar actions in future in Scotland or England and Wales.

Benson, who had been convicted of firearms and theft offences, absconded from Leyhill Prison, Gloucestershire in 1989.
Police said Benson had now been sent back to England.. THE BIRTH of a healthy baby is a blessing and cannot be used as the basis of a claim for compensation even when it is conceived unexpectedly, the law lords ruled yesterday. Michael Benson, 47, was captured by officers from Lothian and Border Police in the village of Tynninghame, East Lothian, on Wednesday. Jail escaper caught after 10 years

A PRISONER who was on the run for 10 years has been recaptured. Abbey National is hoping to give new life to some of the estimated pounds 3.18bn of unused toys and games in British homes, by distributing them to children’s hospitals, and auctioning celebrities’ old toys..

Bank appeals for discarded toys

A HIGH STREET bank has launched an appeal for abandoned toys and games. New guidelines restricting the use of handcuffs were later issued.. I had hoped there was going to be a different approach under New Labour, but it would seem we have replaced pregnant women with tetraplegics.”The issue of shackling prisoners caused a political row in 1996 when a series of inmates was chained during and after giving birth. He did not get the care he needed and would not have died if he was at home on bail with me.”Professor David Wilson, a former prison governor and now at the Law Faculty of the University of Central London in Birmingham, added: “Under the Tories, the scandal was handcuffing women in labour.