The liability of playing God

I received this story via email which I found to be very interesting:

Parents sue after child inherits hemophilia

The words new mother Fiona least expected or wanted to hear when she gave birth were "It's a boy."

The 30-year-old and her husband Paul used in-vitro fertilization, known as IVF, with the specific aim of producing a daughter and expected a girl for the entire pregnancy.

A family history of an incurable blood disorder, which strikes only males, was behind their decision to opt for the controversial sex selection procedure.

By taking the extreme step of asking doctors to discard all male embryos and implant only a female, they hoped their child would avoid the life-threatening condition that Fiona has watched her wheelchair-bound older brother battle his entire life.

But soon after baby Jess was born in June, 2005, doctors confirmed he has a severe form of hemophilia, the condition his family was so desperate to avoid.

The couple, from regional Victoria, has launched a Supreme Court action against Melbourne IVF, Ballarat Health Services, their obstetrician and Bendigo Radiology.

Fiona claims that at no time during her pregnancy — even after two ultrasounds — did anyone tell her the child she was carrying was a boy. The couple say they would have considered terminating the pregnancy had they known.

The rest of the story at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,340737,00.html

So on the one hand, this couple took extremely costly measures to ensure that they would bring a child into the world, without subjecting that child to a life time of disease and painful medical treatments. On the other hand, nature intervened and now they want to sue because they were unsuccesful playing God.

It's a tough call and any parent would agree that they want the best for their child(ren). But a lawsuit?

Do you think the lawsuit is without merit? I don't want to turn this into a conservative vs. liberal discussion but the fact remains that the advances in medicine make it possible to take such extreme measures. If the ultrasound techs had mentioned that it's going to be a boy, this couple was not adverse to terminating the pregnancy - but again, is it really worth suing over?

We have some pretty sensible people on the site (as well as some not so sensible!) and I'd really like to hear your thoughts.