Proffitt v. Bartolo

Plaintiffs appeal from a grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants in this medical malpractice action. This case requires us to consider again the liability of a physician for both "wrongful birth” and "wrongful life.” Specifically, we are concerned here with whether a physician is liable to both the parents and a child when the latter suffers from birth defects caused by the failure to diagnose an illness in the mother in the first trimester of pregnancy — thereby depriving the parents of the option of aborting the unborn child. We reverse in part and remand for further proceedings.…