MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE AND WRONGFUL BIRTH ACTIONS - AUSTRALIAN DEVELOPMENTS

Wrongful birth actions aim to compensate litigants who are negligently deprived by health professionals of their right to reproductive choic e. Access to safe and legal abortion is integral to the action and wro ngful birth claims in the United Kingdom have been facilitated by the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended). The recent Australian case CES v Super clinics (1995) 38 NSWLR 47(1) shows how judicial confusion about the l egality of abortion can result in judges condoning medical negligence. The Superclinics case also suggests that doctors are not required to provide pregnant women with the same standard of care as other patient s. These developments show that law can become incoherent and health p rofessionals can act negligently with impunity when reproductive choic e does not have a secure legal foundation.