Wrongful life refers to a claim or cause of action in which a severely disabled child (through the child’s legal guardian) sues the child’s mother’s doctor or hospital for failing to provide the child’s parents with information about the child’s disability during the pregnancy, or about a genetic disposition for the birth defect with which the child was born, causing the child a lifetime of suffering and medical expenses.

In such cases the child argues the parents would have had an abortion or chosen not to get pregnant if they had known of the birth defect or the genetic disposition for it. Most states do not recognize a wrongful life claim, but California, Maine, New Jersey, and Washington do.

Wrongful birth is a similar claim or cause of action that may be brought by the disabled child’s parents in states that recognize such a claim—and about half of the states do. Wrongful birth is a type of medical malpractice claim.

In Vermont, the concepts of 'wrongful life' and 'wrongful birth' are not explicitly recognized by statute. Vermont case law does not provide a clear precedent for wrongful life claims, where a child sues on the basis that they would not have been born if not for medical negligence. Similarly, wrongful birth claims, where parents sue for the birth of a disabled child due to lack of information about the child's health or genetic conditions, are not clearly established in Vermont. While some states have statutes or case law that address these issues, Vermont does not have a specific legal framework for these types of claims. Therefore, the ability to pursue such claims in Vermont would likely depend on the interpretation of existing medical malpractice and negligence laws by the courts. As always, specific legal advice for individual cases should be sought from an attorney who is knowledgeable about the current state of the law in Vermont.