ABSTRACT
This is not a paper in favour of the claim of wrongful life. It would be difficult to adopt such a stance without asserting the merit of such a claim for compensation in advance of, for example, that of a congenitally disabled infant, thereby adding to the piecemeal process by which our tort law system handles victims of misfortune. Rather it is an attempt to put the wrongful life claim under a microscope so that we may learn more of the nature of the tort law system of which it is a part. The aim is to explain and expose the tort law system as one which depends for its maintenance upon the rejection of certain claims in order to preserve for itself authority to determine the outcome of many others which better serve its vested interest.
