Agent Orange Steeped in Discrimination

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© 2014 ‎(COVVHA) Children Of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance INC
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Agent Orange Steeped in Discrimination

Vietnam Veterans still struggle to make sense of the toll their military service has taken on their children and grand children. Many Veterans who are ailing from Agent Orange related illnesses still want answers to why their children who were born after their service have birth defects or illnesses and their children born before their tour in Vietnam do not.

Veterans and their spouses have been told their children’s rare and debilitating illnesses and birth defects could not possibly be linked to their exposure to the toxic chemicals they came into contact with while serving in the military. However, the government is yet to even adequately survey their children who are now mostly young adults to middle aged people with children of their own. Many Children of Vietnam Veterans who may not have birth defects or illnesses, start their families only to be met with difficulties with fertility. Others have children (grand children of the veteran) with birth defects which have no prior family history.

Vietnam Veterans have been concerned about the birth defects and illnesses of their children since they came home from the war.  In the very first class action lawsuit against the manufactures of Agent Orange that settled in May of 1984, parents were pleading for help and compensation to offset medical expenses of their disabled children.  That month in a New York Times Article published days before the Class Action suit was to go to trial,  Ralph Blumenthal wrote,

“The first two witnesses, lawyers for the veterans have told the court, will be two veterans. They are Danny Ford, a 35-year-old salesman from Temperance, Mich., who blames Agent Orange for his soft-tissue sarcoma – a rare form of cancer – and for rashes and other ailments; and Dan Jordan, a 37- year-old contractor from Austin, Tex. His two sons, Michael and Chad, were born with deformed hands and his wife, Donna, miscarried a deformed fetus in 1972. Three other veterans and the daughter of one of them who was born with multiple birth defects have also been scheduled as witnesses.”

The class action suit, historically never went to trial, it was settled the day before.

The United States Government was not a defendant in the 1984 Class Action suit. It distanced itself from the proceedings. It is important to also remember the Feres Doctrine which states the United States is not liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries to members of the Armed Services resulting from the negligence of others in the Armed Services.  The government has skirted the issue for years despite the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations report after report for the government to take action regarding the birth defects and illnesses of Vietnam Veterans Children. The government hinges it’s excuse on dioxin is not transmitted through sperm so a male’s exposure could not possibly cause birth defects.

A study of 4,140 Women Vietnam Veterans and 4,140 women who served in the military at the same time but did not go to Vietnam was published in 2000.  It was a self report pregnancy outcomes survey that also studied the military records of the women veterans, and medical records of their children. They found women Vietnam Veteran’s children had a significantly elevated chance of having “Moderate to Severe” birth defects (Kang et al., 2000). This study lead to the coverage of eighteen plus birth defects in only the children of female Vietnam Veterans.

Congress passed legislation  to cover eighteen plus birth defects in the children of Female Vietnam Veterans without disclosing what caused the women’s children to have birth defects. The children who have the said birth defects are given a monthly stipend, health care related to the birth defect only, and vocational educational training. On the VA website they deny these birth defects were cause by herbicide exposure. They state they were caused by the service woman’s “service in Vietnam.”

It is time for these eighteen plus birth defects to be recognized in the children of Male Vietnam Veterans as well. The government has clung to 1950’s biology that Agent Orange could not possibly affect sperm. The problem is science has moved forward even though our government has not. They have been discriminating against male Vietnam Veterans and their children for decades. It cannot be tolerated any longer.

The government did not research or disclose what caused the birth defects in the children of female Vietnam Veterans. To do so would mean admitting they know what deformed and killed children who never went to war. Why do the children of male Vietnam Veterans have to jump through never ending dead ends to receive the same care the children of female Vietnam Veterans receive for the very same issues?

It’s plain and simple discrimination. Children of male Vietnam Veterans were harmed by negligence and now because their Dad served and not their Mother they are discriminated against. There were 2.85 million men who served in Vietnam and only 7, 500 women. The discrimination is no longer based on science. The study of epigenetics is showing strong connections between environmental exposures and its effects on subsequent generations. Children of male Vietnam Veterans have not received the same regard as the children of female Vietnam Veterans.  It seems they are currently discriminated against because the financial cost to address the issues is very high.

In the past, Vietnam Veterans had to prove where they were in Vietnam to prove their Agent Orange exposure. Now their specific illnesses are presumed as long as they can show “boots on the ground” time in Vietnam. Children of female Vietnam Veterans who have the eighteen plus birth defects acknowledged did not have to prove they were damaged by Agent Orange to be covered. Why doesn’t the Institute of Medicine complete the same survey style study on the children of Male Vietnam Veterans and report their outcomes? Why shouldn’t they be covered automatically, “due to their father’s service in Vietnam?” Why shouldn’t cases where a male Vietnam Veteran who has service connected ailments due to exposure to Agent Orange and has a child with one of the covered birth defects be taken seriously?

Several children of male Vietnam veterans have letters from the Veterans Administration that state their birth defect is a covered ailment, however, because their father served, and not their mother, they are denied coverage. The problem is the government has denied even a study by the Institute of Medicine. It is the minimum to treat both groups of veteran’s concerns, male and female equally.  The government should at least be required to complete the same survey style report they did for the women veterans.

The answer is not create a bigger system. The answer is not to put off, and push down the road by demanding years and years of further research.  The answer is not to fund all wartime toxic legacy issues before this Agent Orange issue can be resolved. The answer is to complete one task, acknowledge the children of male Vietnam Veterans who are disabled due to birth defects. Let’s stop the games, discrimination and denial.

The Department of Veterans Affairs own motto is, “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan,” this continues to be a pipe dream for children of male Vietnam Veterans as they watch their Dads die and their own health rapidly decline. It’s time to stop the discrimination against the children of male Vietnam Veterans. It is time to cover the same birth defects in the children of male Vietnam Veterans that are already covered in the children of female Vietnam Veterans. Acknowledge the lives which have been tormented by a war they neither signed up for, nor were drafted into.

Heather Bowser, LPCC
Co-Founder, Children of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance

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© 2014 ‎(COVVHA) Children Of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance INC
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