A military helicopter in July 1969 sprays Agent Orange over the Mekong Delta, near Can Tho, Vietnam. The image is part of the Bryan Grigsby Collection at the Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University. (Department of the Army Special Photographic Office)
WASHINGTON — A Vietnam veteran and his daughter, who was born with dwarfism, are challenging a federal law that grants benefits to children with certain birth defects only if their mother — but not their father — was exposed to Agent Orange while serving in the Vietnam War.
Army veteran Ron Christoforo, 78, and his daughter, Michele Christoforo, 33, both of Connecticut, filed a lawsuit on Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, alleging sex discrimination.
The Christoforos argue that the Department of Veterans Affairs unlawfully limits health care coverage and disability benefits solely to the disabled children of female veterans exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides during military service in Vietnam.
“When the VA rejected my claim, they didn’t say my condition wasn’t real or that it wasn’t caused by Agent Orange. They said my father’s service didn’t count as the same as a mother’s would. How can that be legal?” Michele said.
Vietnam veteran Ron Christoforo and his daughter, Michele Christoforo, who has dwarfism, are shown at their home in Connecticut in this undated photo. They are challenging a federal law that restricts VA benefits to children with birth defects connected to a parent’s Agent Orange exposure. (Christoforo Family)
Approximately 200 children with birth defects identified in the complaint have been born to female Vietnam veterans.
By contrast, an estimated 350,000 children with birth defects were born to male Vietnam veterans, given that men served in much higher numbers than women, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit demands that the VA extend benefits equally to all qualifying disabled children of Vietnam veterans, regardless of whether the parent is their mother or their father, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the “sex-based distinction” unconstitutional.
“My daughter is being denied the help that other veterans’ children receive just because I’m her father. She deserves the same benefits any other veteran’s child would get,” Ron Christoforo said at a news conference, after the lawsuit was filed.
Modern scientific research has linked dioxin, a toxin in Agent Orange, to genetic damage and congenital disorders affecting veterans’ children, according to the lawsuit.
Ron Christoforo enlisted in the Army in 1969 and served as a telecommunications technician. His three years of service included a year deployed to Vietnam, where he was exposed directly to Agent Orange, according to the lawsuit.
In 1992, his daughter, Michele, was born with achondroplasia, a rare congenital birth defect that causes dwarfism. But neither parent had a family history of the medical condition.
The VA only recognizes achondroplasia, a congenital disorder that causes dwarfism, as a covered birth defect for the biological children of female Vietnam veterans who served in Vietnam between Feb 28, 1961, and May 7, 1975, according to the lawsuit.
Individuals with achondroplasia face significant challenges, including skeletal abnormalities, chronic pain, and spinal complications, according to the family.
The Christoforos are represented by Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic, in New Haven, Conn.
The VA declined to comment on the case, stating that it cannot discuss pending litigation.
Attorneys for the family assert that the VA is basing its benefit decisions on a 26-year-old statute that does not reflect modern science and violates the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment.
The Veterans Benefits and Health Care Improvement Act, enacted in 2000, authorizes the VA to provide compensation and health care for certain birth defects, such as cleft palate, congenital heart disease and achondroplasia, which is congenital dwarfism, in children born to women veterans who served in Vietnam.
Except for those with spina bifida, the children of male Vietnam veterans are ineligible for benefits, according to the lawsuit.
“At the time Congress adopted this sex-based provision in 2000, scientific research regarding genetic inheritance from fathers was in its infancy. However, research since 2000 demonstrates that paternal exposure to Agent Orange contributes to congenital birth defects at least as readily as maternal exposure,” according to the lawsuit.
“Our members came home from Vietnam carrying wounds that didn’t always show up right away, and some of those wounds were passed on to their children. The law recognized that for the children of women veterans. Scientific research does not justify this distinction. It is long past time it does the same for the children of the men who served alongside them,” said Linda Schwartz, a veteran and board member at the Vietnam Veterans of America.
