Failed sterilisations and the unwanted child:  a new medicolegal minefield?

Gerber, Paul

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2004.tb05834.x

Topics

A recent High Court decision has held that parents are entitled, in addition to the usual costs arising from a failed sterilisation, to the reasonable costs of raising a healthy child.

Corinda, QLD.

Correspondence:

Competing interests:

None identified.

1. Melchior v Cattanach & Anor [2001] QCA 246.
2. Cattanach v Melchior [2003] HCA 38 (16 July 2003).
3. McFarlane v Tayside Health Board [2000] 2 AC 59.
4. Udale v Bloomsbury Area Health Authority [1983] 1 WLR 1098; [1983] 2 ALL ER 522.
5. Emeh v Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster Area Health Authority [1985] QB 1012.
6. Thake v Maurice [1986] QB 644.
7. Benarr v Kettering Health Authority [1988] NLJ 179.
8. CES v Superclinics (Australia) Pty Ltd (1995) 38 NSWLR 47.
9. Baker v Bolton (1808) 1 Camp 493; [170] ER 1033.
10. Sutherland Shire Council v Heyman (1985) 157 CLR 424.

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