Wrongful life and wrongful birth: new concepts for the pediatrician
Coplan, J.
Pediatrics 75(1): 65-72
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0031-4005 PMID: 3966047 Document Number: 249444
Over the past two decades, numerous suits for damages have been brought against physicians for the injury of wrongful life, or wrongful birth. Within the past 5 years, several precedents have been set that broaden the physician's legal obligation to recognize and act upon foreseeable or potentially recurrent genetic, teratogenic, or chromosomal disorders. These precedents may be expected to affect all physicians, but particularly pediatricians, because of the increased frequency of such disorders in the pediatric population.