ABSTRACT
This article presents a brief overview of how medical liability for wrongful birth and wrongful life issues is addressed under continental civil law in Portugal. It analyses the requisites for tort liability (wrongfulness, culpability, causation and damage), then explores how these elements operate in wrongful birth and life lawsuits. This is done to determine whether they can be applied as they would be in any other medical liability situation, or whether they require adaption. In addition, this article examines other circumstances that can affect the outcome of these legal procedures, namely standing to file a lawsuit, the judicial consideration of hypothetical events and the legal regulation of abortion. In addition to analyzing the particularities of continental civil law within the domain of wrongful birth and life suits, this article will provide some suggestions for improving the current law and caselaw and some insights regarding the development of these legal proceedings for the near future.
Raposo, Vera Lúcia, Wrongful Birth and Wrongful Life Actions (The Experience in Portugal as a Continental Civil Law Country) (2017) Italian Law Journal, 3(2), pp 421-450, 2017.
First posted 2020-11-25 08:19:51
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