ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate why judicial intervention in cases of reproductive deceit would be internally consistent with existing private law intervention into sexual relationships. It proceeds in five stages. First, the value of reproductive control is identified and compared to other interests that receive direct protection in private law. Second, the interest is extracted and distinguished from the interest in bodily integrity, and a remedial path to compensation identified through the tort of deceit. The third stage addresses the mantle of privacy and considers the circumstances in which courts are prepared to lift the mantle in order to remediate a wrong which occurs within our private lives. Fourth, the spectrum of conduct amounting to deceit is examined, and consideration given to whether private law should respond differently to different conduct falling within that spectrum. The final stage shifts attention to the interests of the child and considers whether these should trump remediation of the wrong that led to the child’s creation.
Broadmore, Anna, Deceit and the Creation of Life (December 26, 2024) in Kate Falconer, Kit Barker and Andrew Fell (eds), Life and Death in Private Law (Hart, 2024); The University of Auckland Faculty of Law Research Paper Series 2024.
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