Court Opinion

ID: 9540424
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:15:48.953498+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:57:18.474309
License: Public Domain

CONOVER, Presiding Judge,
concurring.
While I concur in all things with the majority opinion, I believe it necessary to expand on its discussion of the damages available to Jacob based on his common law negligence count. In addition to the damages acknowledged by the majority, Jacob is also entitled to recover for his mental pain, suffering and anguish based on any diminished quality of life he may suffer from being the genetic off-spring of mentally deficient parents. Additionally, I believe Jacob could seek to recover any extraordinary medical expenses attributable to Fetal Hydantoin Syndrome or other physical injury caused by Forum’s negligence.
With regard to damages for a diminished quality of life, I believe any person who is the direct result of a sexual union which occurs without the knowing and intelligent consent of both parents, whether that union was due to violence (i.e. rape, incest, child molesting, etc.) or otherwise, has an unqualified right not to be born under such circumstances which pre-exist conception. However, once conceived under such circumstances, the resulting child has the right to be born possessing at least normal intellectual and physiological capabilities. Any adverse variance from normal functioning levels in the person born because of such union should be considered a diminished quality of life for which damages may be recovered.1 Consequently, when an in*969voluntary conception proximately results from the negligence of a person having a duty to prevent it, the child thus produced should have the right to recover damages from the negligent party for the pain and suffering caused him by his impaired existence.2 This right survives an adoption because it is personal to the child. The measure of damages should be the pain, suffering, and anguish the child has to date and reasonably will suffer throughout his lifetime as the result of his diminished quality of life. This accords with the traditional method of awarding damages in tort cases on the basis of a comparison between the position the plaintiff would have been in had the defendant not committed the act which caused the injury, and the position in which the plaintiff presently does and in the future will find himself.
As applied to the present case, if the trier of fact should determine Forum’s negligence proximately resulted in Jacob’s birth, I believe Jacob has a personal right to recover damages from Forum for any mental or physical deficiency proximately resulting from his involuntary conception in addition to those damages mentioned in the majority opinion. Clearly, if Forum is found to have breached its duty to protect Melanie from involuntary conception, Forum should be held responsible for the damages Jacob reasonably will incur as a result of his diminished quality of life, if any. While it is true a person cannot generally recover damages for mental suffering unless he sustains physical injury, I believe Jacob experienced sufficient physical trauma to recover. Given his personal right not to be born under such circumstances, his conception as a proximate result of Forum’s negligence constitutes the required trauma and injury, however slight. There is no requirement the contemporaneous physical injury be severe to support the diminished quality of life claim; a causal connection is all that is mandated. Kroger Co. v. Beck (1978), 176 Ind.App. 202, 375 N.E.2d 640, 643-644.
The measure of such damages may be difficult to calculate. However, mental pain and suffering, like physical pain and suffering, is compensable without offering specific evidence as to monetary values. Grubbs v. U.S., 581 F.Supp. 536, 542 (D.C.Ind.1984).
Also as to extraordinary medical expenses, I believe Jacob should be permitted to seek damages for those attributable to Fetal Hydantoin Syndrome or other physical injury proximately resulting from Forum’s negligence. In cases such as the present one, either the child or his parents should be able to recover special damages for extraordinary medical expenses incurred during infancy and the child should recover those expenses during his majority. Procanik v. Cilio (1984), 97 N.J. 339, 478 A.2d 755, 762. See also Harbeson v. Parke-Davis, Inc. (1983), 98 Wash.2d 460, 656 P.2d 483, 495.
For those reasons, I concur in the result reached by the majority.

. In Kavanaugh v. Nussbaum (1987), 129 A.D.2d 559, 564, 514 N.Y.S.2d 55, 59, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, stated:
... although there is no evidence that the infant plaintiff is capable of fully appreciating the consequences of his injuries, or that he is presently conscious of his pain, an award for pain and suffering may be based on the effect that the injuries had upon the infant plaintiffs *969ability to enjoy the normal pursuits and pleasures of life.
Upon review, the Court of Appeals of New York did not review the issue because the "lost enjoyment of life” was not presented as an element to the jury at trial. See Kavanaugh v. Nussbaum (1988), 71 N.Y.2d 535, 528 N.Y.S.2d 8, 14, 523 N.E.2d 284, 290. Further, in Ledogar v. Giordano (1986), 122 A.D.2d 834, 838, 505 N.Y.S.2d 899, 903, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, held the jury could properly consider the effect the child’s injuries had on the normal pursuits and pleasures of life as part of the pain and suffering component of damages. See also Lebrecht v. Bethlehem Steel Corp. (1968), 402 F.2d 585, 592, in which the United States Court of Appeals held the jury may consider the effect of the plaintiffs injuries on the normal pursuits and pleasures of life.

. In Pitre v. Opelousas General Hosp. (1988), La., 530 So.2d 1151, the Louisiana Supreme Court held a physician owes a duty to exercise reasonable care in assisting potential parents to avoid the conception of a deformed child. The court stated:
... each person owes a duty to take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which he can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure a present or future member of society
Id. at 1157. The court went on to state logic dictates we recognize a legal duty to a child not yet conceived but foreseeably harmed by the negligent delivery of health care services to the child’s parents. Id. The reasoning underlying this holding may be applied to the case at bar.