Court Opinion

ID: 9656581
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 19:51:43.79113+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:33.372513
License: Public Domain

Concurring opinion by Justice
WINTERSHEIMER.
I concur with the majority opinion, but wish to state additional reasons for my concurrence. Obviously, the claims in this action involve a macabre twist of logic which sets them apart from the ordinary medical negligence action. Simply stated, the life of a child cannot constitute an injury and thus there can be no recognition of either a wrongful life or a wrongful birth claim.
As stated almost twenty years ago in Schork v. Huber, Ky., 648 S.W.2d 861 (1983):
Wrongful life is a contradiction in terms. It is contrary to the public policy of this state as expressed by the legislature and interpreted by the courts.
Schork, supra, sends a clear and unmistakable message. The interpretation of Schork by the Court of Appeals is erroneous and unacceptable. A claim for wrongful life is contrary to the intrinsic value and sanctity of human life. It would place the courts-in the position of affirming that death, or nonexistence, is preferable to life.
Because of the “nearly universal” reluctance, Williams v. Univ. of Chicago Hosp., *692179 Ill.2d 80, 227 Ill.Dec. 793, 688 N.E.2d 130, 133 (1997), to adopt a premise that devalues human life so completely, the overwhelming majority of courts, which have considered the issue, have rejected claims for wrongful life. See e.g. Elliott v. Brown, 361 So.2d 546 (Ala.1978); Goldberg v. Ruskin, 113 Ill.2d 482, 101 Ill.Dec. 818, 499 N.E.2d 406 (1986); Bruggeman v. Schimke, 239 Kan. 245, 718 P.2d 635 (1986); Taylor v. Kurapati, 236 Mich.App. 315, 600 N.W.2d 670 (1999); Azzolino v. Dingfelder, 315 N.C. 103, 337 S.E.2d 528 (1985); Hester v. Dwivedi, 89 Ohio St.3d 575, 733 N.E.2d 1161 (2000).
The reason for rejecting a wrongful life claim does not simply involve the difficulty in applying traditional tort concepts such as duty, breach, injury, proximate cause and damages. Instead, the paramount reason for rejecting a wrongful life claim involves the very dignity of the human person and the very sanctity of human life itself. It is basic to our culture that human life is precious. To recognize wrongful life as a tort would do violence to that purpose and is completely contradictory to the belief that life is precious.
Medically, the separate existence of the unborn child has been recognized by the highly respected and widely used medical textbook, Williams Obstetrics (16th Edition, Appleton-Century-Crofts 1980). The text observes that “we have entered an era in which the fetus can be rightfully considered as a second patient ... fetal diagnosis and therapy have now emerged as legitimate tools the obstetrician must possess.”
The argument that there is a kind of “quality of life” ethic is without any merit. This Court has rejected the quality of life philosophy in DeGrella By and Through Parrent v. Elston, Ky., 858 S.W.2d 698 (1993), which recognized that an individual has an inalienable right to life as declared by the United States Declaration of Independence and protected by Section One of the Kentucky Constitution. Any quality of life ethic favors the life of the healthy over the infirm, the able-bodied over the disabled and the intelligent over the mentally challenged. If logically extended, it could produce a culture that condones the extermination of the weak by the strong or the more powerful.
The Nazi regime under Adolph Hitler is a not too distant reminder of this kind of eugenic approach. Unfortunately, such thoughts are not limited to foreign nations but can also be found in the writings of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200, 47 S.Ct. 584, 71 L.Ed. 1000 (1927), which approved of sterilization of the mentally incompetent. Taylor, supra, calls to our attention the influence that Hitler’s experiments with sterilization had on the American eugenics movement. Eugenics espouses the reproduction of the fit over the unfit and discourages the birth of the unfit. Bowman, The Road to Eugenics, 3 U. Chic. L. Sch. Roundtable 491 (1996).
It is significant to observe that even in three of the jurisdictions which have recognized a claim for wrongful life, all have refused to permit an award of general damages. See Turpin v. Sortini, 31 Cal.3d 220, 182 Cal.Rptr. 337, 643 P.2d 954 (1982); Procanik v. Cillo, 97 N.J. 339, 478 A.2d 755 (1984); Harbeson v. Parke-Davis, Inc., 98 Wash.2d 460, 656 P.2d 483 (1983). The reason for this is the same reason that a majority of jurisdictions have rejected wrongful life claims completely, namely, that measuring the value of an impaired life as compared to nonexistence is a task that is beyond mere mortals, whether judges or jurors. Harbeson, supra.
A claim for wrongful life must be rejected because it would definitely discriminate against disabled persons and could lead to a eugenic culture where the “unfit” are *693made disposable. In effect, doctors and other healthcare professionals would be punished for not identifying and eliminating any disabled children in the womb. See Bernadette Kennedy, Comment, The Trend toward Judicial Recognition of Wrongful Life: A Dissenting View, 31 U.C.L.A. L.Rev. 473 (1983). Such an approach is inherently dangerous. What “defect” will the law recognize as compen-sable? Who will draw the line as to what is severe and what is not severe? Will physical as well as mental impairments be involved?
It is obvious that many of the so-called disabled can and do have lives of immense value to themselves and to others. Such a concept is clearly envisioned in the adoption of the “Americans with Disabilities Act” by the United States Congress several year’s ago.
It is also clear that any claim for wrongful birth should not be recognized because it requires that life itself constitute some kind of legal injury. The court in Taylor clearly expressed a view that I would adopt regarding wrongful birth cases:
The very phrase “wrongful birth” suggests that the birth of a disabled child was wrong and should have been prevented. If one accepts the premise that the birth of one “defective” child should have been prevented, then it is but a short step to accepting the premise that the births of classes of “defective” children should similarly be prevented, not just for the benefit of the parents but also for the benefit of society as a whole through the protection of the “public welfare.” This is the operating principle of eugenics.
Taylor rejected a wrongful birth claim based on its close relationship with wrongful life. That court recognized that the two claims have some differences but more similarities. An extremely significant element underlying both wrongful life and wrongful birth claims is a subjective determination about disability, retardation and other impairments of the unborn child. If there is to be consistency in the law, both wrongful life and wrongful birth actions must be rejected. To permit a claim for wrongful life or wrongful birth would undermine the proposition that all human persons, no matter their race, religion, or ability, are precious and worthy of respect.
GRAVES, J., joins this concurring opinion.