In his 23-page opinion in Donovan v. Idant Laboratories, Philadelphia federal district court Judge Thomas O’Neill cleared the way for a 13-year-old mentally retarded girl from Pennsylvania to bring tort and contract claims against a New York sperm bank. The theory: the sperm used to conceive her had a defect known as “Fragile X,” a mutation known to cause a syndrome of maladies that include mental retardation and behavioral disorders.
For a case involving sperm, the differences between Pennsylvania and New York tort law are significant. Both states have enacted so-called “blood shield statutes” that prohibit products liability suits stemming from blood or blood products. But while Pennsylvania’s blood shield statute includes human tissues other than blood, New York’s statute includes only blood and its derivatives.
via On Sperm Banks and the Law (Lots of Law) - Law Blog - WSJ.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/donovanidant.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment