Dimopoulos Penny, Bagaric Mirko
La Trobe University, Australia.
Common Law World Rev. 2003;32(1):35-64.
A wrongful life action is a claim brought by a disabled child who asserts that but for a physician's negligence he or she would not have been born, thereby being spared the suffering of life. The action is inherently controversial because the alternative to an impaired life is non-existence. Lord Griffiths has described such claims as 'utterly offensive; there should be rejoicing that the hospital's mistake bestowed the gift of life upon the child.' This paper cuts through the rhetoric that the debate has generated and analyses whether there is a sound doctrinal basis for recognizing wrongful life actions.
wrongful life诉讼是由残疾儿童提起的一种索赔，该儿童声称，要不是医生的疏忽，他或她就不会出生，从而也就不会遭受生活的痛苦。这种诉讼本身就存在争议，因为与受损的生命相对的选择是不存在。格里菲斯勋爵将此类索赔描述为“极其令人反感；医院的错误赋予了孩子生命的礼物，对此应该感到庆幸。”本文穿透了这场辩论所产生的言辞，分析了承认wrongful life诉讼是否有合理的理论依据。
