What is the test for a wrongful death claim against a stillborn child?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from Justus v. Atchison, 126 Cal.Rptr. 150, 53 Cal.App.3d 556 (Cal. App. 1975):

Whether life before birth be considered existent or merely potential (Roe v. Wade, supra, 410 U.S. at 150, 159-160, 163, 93 S.Ct. at 725, 729-730, 731, 35 L.Ed.2d at 175, 181, 183), 3 it serves no rational purpose to make live birth of the decedent the sine qua non for an action for the wrongful death of a child. As I have already pointed out, the pecuniary loss to the parents is essentially the same whether the deceased child be a fully developed stillborn child or a newborn child. Constitutional equal protection of law therefore demands that the law treat these similarly situated parents the same.

* Before Cobey, Acting P.J., Allport and Potter, JJ.

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