63 N.Y.2d 978 | NY | 1984
OPINION OF THE COURT
Memorandum.
The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed, with costs.
We agree with the Appellate Division that, while otherwise denominated, plaintiff’s cause of action is in fact one for wrongful life, which is not legally cognizable in this State. Nor is there any anomaly or inconsistency in the fact that plaintiff’s parents might, if their own claim had been timely brought, have recovered their pecuniary expense for the care and treatment of their infant (Becker v Schwartz, 46 NY2d 401, 412-413, supra), although plaintiff herself cannot recover these same expenses after her majority. While plaintiff’s parents might have established a breach of duty flowing from defendants to them, which was the proximate cause of injury requiring them to assume increased obligations, plaintiff’s own cause of action — being one for her own wrongful life — does not allege any legally cognizable injury and “demands a calculation of damages dependent upon a comparison between the Hobson’s choice of life in an impaired state and nonexistence”, which the law is not equipped to make (Becker v Schwartz, supra, p 412). Plaintiff’s argument that recovery should be allowed simply as a matter of public policy is one more appropriately addressed to the Legislature than a court of law.
Order affirmed, with costs, in a memorandum.