The Knucklehead of the Day award

We'll ring in 2007 with what may be a slightly controversial Knucklehead.

Today's winner is Gabriele Meyer. She gets the award for the following.

BERLIN (Reuters) - An expectant German mother stands to lose at least 20,000 euros (17,770 pounds) in maternity pay because doctors say her unborn twins must be delivered three days before a new government benefits scheme for parents begins.


The German government, anxious about the country's falling birth rate and shrinking population, plans to introduce a scheme from January 1 under which parents will receive up to 1,800 euros a month per child to take time off work to care for newborns.

Doctors say one of 41-year-old Gabriele Meyer's twin foetuses is too small and have scheduled her for a Caesarean section on Friday. The twins were initially due on January 22.

"It means more than 20,000 euros to me," Meyer told Reuters TV from Munich's Grosshadern University hospital.

Meyer, who has taken magnesium and homeopathic medicine to delay the birth, said she has not ruled out taking legal action.

It is Meyer's threat of a lawsuit that earns her the award. The doctors have only the health of the babies in mind and this mother is upset? A dead boy or girl isn't going to be worth anything but guilt for the mother for not following doctor's orders. I've worked as a x-ray technician and with ultrasound machines(but not on pregnant women). They are excellent machines for dianostic work, and the child having stopped growing is a sign for concern.

TFM also lost his son Daniel almost four years ago. For that, I don't feel the risk is worth any amount of money. I don't want to see another baby angel in heaven.

The mother not seeing euros rather than her child being in distress has to leave you wondering what kind of mother she'll be after birth. I make Gabriele Meyer today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Linked to- Third World County, Bright and Early, Cao's Blog, Blue Star, Samantha Burns,