[Liability in failed sterilization from the legal viewpoint]

If a sterilization does not succeed and leads to the unintended birth of a child and if this is due to the physician's negligence, he has to compensate the parents' cost of maintenance for the child. This is a legal rule which has been developed and reaffirmed in several decisions of the German Federal Court (Bundesgerichtshof). Unexpected and without connexion with the real matter of the case which had to be decided the German Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) has criticized this legal doctrine in its decision on to the reform of the law of abortion. In the opinions of the court the rule has to be revised, because it is a violation of the child's dignity as a human being to regard its (wrongful) existence as a source of damage. However this part of the decision can only be understood as a obiter dictum which is not finding the Federal Court. Therefore it is not to be expected that the civil courts will undertake any substantial change of the rule laid down at the outset.