“The French parliament has voted to overturn a controversial legal ruling that established the ‘right not to be born,‘” BBC News reports. “The bill, passed with the support of the government, follows three cases in which judges ruled that families whose children were born with birth defects could sue because doctors did not spot the problems during pre-natal scans.”

It states that ‘nobody can claim to have been harmed simply by being born.’

The rulings outraged French disabled groups and doctors. Specialists who carry out the scans have been on strike for over a week.

Passed by the National Assembly, the bill now goes before the upper house of parliament, the Senate.

The government hopes to have the legislation in the statute books by the end of February, thus bringing an end to a year-long moral and legal controversy before parliament is suspended prior to June elections.

In November 2000, France’s highest court awarded damages to Nicolas Perruche, a teenage boy born with severe mental and physical disabilities.

Ah, France! — where it takes a controversial act of parliament to declare the idea of retroactive abortions degrading to the already-been-born.

And oh, the pastry … bien!

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