Austria: No more “wrongful birth”

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D. | January 3, 2011

Good news reaches us from Austria: The Federal Minister of Justice, Mrs. Claudia Bandion-Ortner, has submitted a bill to Parliament that will put an end to the Supreme Courts’ controversial “wrongful-birth” case law.

In a series of decisions, the Supreme Court had condemned obstetricians who, having failed to inform mothers-to-be of malformations of the unborn children they were carrying, were held responsible for those mothers having “missed their opportunity for a legal abortion” to pay high pecuniary compensations. This case law, which is known under the term “wrongful birth”, caused widespread shock and disgust even in Austria, which has one of the most liberal abortion laws in Europe.

The bill clarifies that nobody can claim compensation for damages with regard to the (unplanned) birth of a child, even if the child is disabled. Implicitly, this means that there is no entitlemnt to select and abort children with disabilities.

Here is a link to the bill (in German).

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