Landmark Medical Law Case
June 10th 2006 06:44
from www.morguefile.com
On Tuesday May 9, 6 out of 7 judges of the High Court of Australia ruled that children born with severe disabilities do not have the right to make compensation claims for ‘wrongful life’. In simple terms, ‘wrongful life’ claims are about suing doctors in negligence, not for the injuries sustained but for being born.
The case involved Alexia Harriton and Keeden Waller who were both born with severe medical problems. Whilst Keeden is suffering from permanent brain damage, Alexia is blind, deaf and suffers spasticity. The parents of both girls say they would have terminated their pregnancies had the doctors detected certain conditions in the mothers that could cause disabilities in their children. But these conditions went undetected. And I guess that’s where all the legal problems began.
In Alexia and Keeden’s case, it is true that the doctors were negligent. As a result, the girls were born into a life where they require 24 hour assistance by carers and nurses. Surely you’d think they would be entitled to some form of compensation right?
Wrong. In negligence claims, you need to prove that a duty of care was owed by the doctors to the girls, that the duty of care was breached and that as a result damage was suffered by the girls.
The case failed because no legally recognisable damage could be established. Had the conditions been detected by the doctors, the mothers say they would have had abortions. So in determining what the damage is for the purposes of this case, the High Court had to compare the girls current lives to non-existence. Clearly impossible and for some of the judges, immoral.
If the court had ruled in favour of the girls, it would be acknowledging the idea that the girls are better off dead. It would mean that human life is worthless. The implications of such a decision would be clearly disastrous.
And yet, you can’t help but sympathise with Alexia and Keeden who will never be able to lead a life like yours and mine.
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