Wrongful Life In Scotland Case Study

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Chapter Three – Wrongful life action from the justice element. Introduction This third and final chapter aims to answer the question whether there is scope to bring an action for wrongful life in Scotland based on the justice aspect. As has been stated in previous chapters, there has been no action raised on this basis in Scotland and only one in England. This essay will begin by defining justice per se, from Aristotle’s famous quote “Like should be treated alike and unlike should be treated differently” now used to distinguish distributive and corrective justice, which naturally flow from this. Moving on to examine how the judges make use of the justice elements, in order to establish whether their rationale is in line with this, a particular example being Lord Steyn and his famous London commuter analogy. It is also necessary to critically analyse the reasons given by the judges in McKay for rejecting the action, including the arguments for and against such actions, in order to critique the UK’s apparent blanket ban. The conclusion will give an opinion on whether there are any potential barriers which would hinder an action being raised.…show more content…
Consequently, the courts are now sanctioning the removal of life-sustaining medical treatment from severely disabled newbornsand separation surgery on conjoined twins to save the life of one, despite the fact that it would result in the loss of the other. These actions are distinguishable from wrongful life action, because they do not relate to determining compensation that reflects the variation between existence and non-existence. However they do require a degree of judicial evaluation on the matter. The courts which have rejected the actions did this not on the basis that harm cannot be quantified but because they believe that life will always be more

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