Actions for wrongful birth and wrongful life.

Abstract

This paper discusses wrongful birth and wrongful life actions taken under the common law of negligence in the United States, Canada, England and Australia. The paper explains the nature of the actions and offers comments on the legal and ethical issues. In particular, it considers the problem of identifying the harm suffered by the parents of an unwanted child and explores some of the questions posed by the law's attempts to assign responsibility following the birth of a normal or a disabled child.