On Wrongful Life Damages Responsibility

In order to avoid the birth defects,before giving birth to a baby,pregnant woman went to hospital for prenatal genetic test.However,doctors and medical engineers misjudged the results of the medical test.They did not find the defects of fetal,or they found the defects,but the failed to inform the parents of the responsibility of birth defects.Therefore,parents thought that they were pregnant with healthy baby,so they did not procure a eugenic abortion.Eventually,instead of a expected healthy baby,a child with hereditary disease or physical disability was born.Below this circumstance,newborn bring a lawsuit against the medical institution,claiming for recovery for damage because of the negligence of defendant,called wrongful life claim.Since its emergence in the United States in the 1960 s,wrongful life action has sprung up around the world and has been paid attention gradually.Wrongful life lawsuit has just emerged in China these years,but it has triggered a great number of controversial topics since its initiation.In current theoretical research and juridical practice,those topics are still in a debatable situation.No consensus has been reached about the discussion of the nature of the liability for damage,the definition of the damage,the constitutive elements of the liability,the scope of damage compensation and the compensation standard.Because of the lack of legal guidelines,courts often bring different sentences in wrongful life cases.This would hinder the protection of defective children’s interests,weaken the credibility of court decisions,undermine the authority and unity of judicial judgment.Besides,it is not conducive to the long-term construction of socialist rule of law in China.To solve those problems,this article conducts a study on wrongful life damages responsibility.Through seeking the theoretical support and judgment standard for wrongful life,to unify the court judgment and protect the rights and interests of defective children.This paper contains four chapters.The first chapter reveals the meaning of wrongful life as the starting point,then makes a comparison with several concepts,and then reviews typical wrongful life cases in other jurisdictions.The second chapter,on the basis of the first chapter,after studying theories and judgments of China and other countries,draws the conclusion that wrongful life damages responsibility is in line with the tort law framework of China,and the defective children should be given tort law relief.Then,the third chapter,on the basis of tort liability,reasons doctrine of liability fixation and elements of wrongful life tort liability.To realize the claim for recovering damages of inborn defective children,after introducing the subjects,the last chapter puts forwardsuggestions on the determination of the compensation scope and how to calculate damage amount.While protecting private rights,tort law also pays attention to the limit of liability.Therefore,for preventing the improper expansion of wrongful life liability,this paper discusses the limitation of the liability for damage of wrongful life at the end in the fourth chapter.