[Liability for unsuccessful sterilization?]

In 1980 the Bundesgerichtshof (German Federal Supreme Court) handed down two leading decisions. In both cases the doctor who was responsible for the failure of a sterilisation was sentenced to pay the parents' damages incurred by the support for the unwanted child. Doctors and lawyers have vehemently criticised these decisions. Recently these decisions were consciously ignored by the Frankfurt Regional Court of Appeal which decided, in a new case, that "a child can not be considered a damage" and, therefore, has rejected the claims of the parents, disappointed at the birth of their child. The reluctant mother's claim for immaterial damages was also rejected. The author's arguments also support a change of the Supreme Court's decision.