Wrongful Birth Bill passes in Arizona

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AXOmom

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/i...d-area_co.html

Interestingly, this story made our front page today. It appears the award was, as MysticCat noted, for the amount of care estimated this child would need.

Interesting story. Thanks for sharing it.

I note that it does specifically say that the couple claimed they would have terminated the pregnancy had they known, though I'd be interested to know whether that accurately reflects the complaint itself -- if it does, then that shoots a big hole in the understanding I had that such claims usually don't get far. (Though again, the story does say that claims like this usually don't get far.)

But as you note, damages seem to have been limited to care expenses, not pain and suffering or the like, which does seem to be more in line with my understanding of how these cases go.

I should have said upfront that I live in a state whose Supreme Court has said that a valid claim cannot be stated for wrongful birth, so I have no firsthand experience with it. For anyone who is interested, this article has quite a bit of detail on wrongful birth, wrongful life and wrongful conception (which my state's Supreme Court has recognized) claims and how they have been treated by courts. And a lot of ink has been spilled on the ethics and jurisprudential issues raised by these claims.