What Does Wrongful Life Mean

To start this article off, what exactly do wrongful birth and wrongful life mean? Wrongful birth and wrongful life are negligence based tort claims brought against a doctor when a child is born with a severe significant disability or impairment that a doctor could or should have warned the parents about. A key difference between wrongful birth and wrongful life is who brings the lawsuit. In wrongful birth, the parents of the child bring a lawsuit on their own behalf seeking damages associated with rearing the child. On the contrary, in wrongful life cases the child who was born with the severe significant disability or impairment brings the lawsuit. It is not uncommon for a guardian of the child or other person acting in interest of the child to file for wrongful life on behalf of the child if the child has not reached the age of majority. The most common claim for wrongful birth claim is intertwine with failure to correctly diagnose a genetic abnormality in the parents or in a fetus and the claim that but for the error the parents would never have had that child. In North Carolina, wrongful birth was rejected because it was established that they are “unwilling to say that life, even life with sever defects may ever amount to a legal injury” although, many but not all states have permitted wrongful

In other words, being born was an injury to the child. The child’s life is often depicted as a life not worth living given that their life is a harm not a benefit overall. Some courts disagree and argue that the child has not been harmed because living is better than not existing. In contrast, few courts allow wrongful life because of deterrence. The reasoning being that if people know there will be a consequence to their action the more careful they are. Wrongful life claims in which most states have been prohibited in the U.S. by legislative or case