The Harm Paradox: Tort Law and the Unwanted Child in an Era of Choice

by Priaulx; Nicolette

• ISBN13: 9781844721078
• ISBN10: 1844721078
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-12-31
• Publisher: Cavendish Pub Ltd

Summary

Offering the first comprehensive theoretical engagement with actions for wrongful conception and birth, The Harm Paradox provides readers with an insightful critique into the concepts of choice, responsibility and personhood. Raising fundamental questions relating to birth, abortion, family planning and disability, Priaulx challenges the law?s response that enforced parenthood is a harmless outcome and examines the concept of autonomy, gender and women?s reproductive freedom. It explores a wealth of questions, including: Can a healthy child resulting from negligence in family planning procedures constitute ?harm? sounding in damages, when so many see its birth as a blessing? Can a pregnancy constitute an ?injury? when many women choose that very event? Are parents really harmed, when they choose to keep their much loved but ?unwanted child?? Why don?t women seek an abortion if the consequences of pregnancy are seen asharmful? An exciting and original contribution to the fields of medical law and ethics, tort law and feminist jurisprudence, this is an excellent resource for both students and practitioners.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Introduction	p. ix
Table of cases	p. xv
Table of legislation	p. xix
The beginning of the decline	p. 1
Characterising harm	p. 4
Loss of autonomy?	p. 8
Defining the problem	p. 11
Notes	p. 14
Injured bodies	p. 15
Natural born reproducers	p. 18
Wrongful pregnancy as a personal injury	p. 24
Orthodox injuries	p. 31
Harmed minds, harmed bodies	p. 38
Paradigm shifts	p. 43
Conclusion	p. 47
Notes	p. 49
Health, disability and harm	p. 53
Emerging dichotomies	p. 56
The 'disability' exception	p. 59
Parental autonomy	p. 64
The importance of context	p. 68
Rees in the House of Lords	p. 71
Conclusion: What kind of autonomy?	p. 78
Notes	p. 82
The harm paradox	p. 85
The mitigation ethic	p. 90
Mitigation is dead...	p. 91
...Long live choice!	p. 101
My family and other animals	p. 105
Conclusion: A harm paradox?	p. 109
Notes	p. 110
Constructions of the reasonable woman	p. 113
On being responsible	p. 115
Responsible women	p. 121
Self-regarding woman: 'Still a choice'	p. 122
Natural woman: 'She had no other choice'	p. 128
The 'Woman in Need'	p. 132
Conclusion: Not a choice?	p. 136
Notes	p. 139
Reproductive choice, reproductive reality	p. 141
A (wo)man's right to choose	p. 144
Reversing nature's discrimination	p. 149
'In practice abortion is not a choice'	p. 150
'Women do not experience abortion as a choice'	p. 151
'Women are conforming, not choosing'	p. 154
Conclusion	p. 156
Notes	p. 159
The moral domain of autonomy	p. 161
What kind of person?	p. 164
Beyond personhood	p. 166
'Autonomous choice': A relational approach	p. 170
Being responsible beings	p. 173
Concluding remarks	p. 178
Notes	p. 184
Bibliography	p. 185
Index	p. 197
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