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Schirmer v. Mt. Auburn Obstetrics & Gynecologic Associates12/30/2003
ection under its tort-reform legislation, which allows an award for economic damages but limits them, as a matter of policy, for emotional injury and pain and suffering. See, generally, State ex rel. Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers v. Sheward, 86 Ohio St.3d 451, 1999-Ohio-123, 715 N.E.2d 1062; see, also, S.B. No. 281, effective April, 11, 2003.
. A claim for medical negligence brought by the parents of a child born with birth defects alleging that negligent medical advice or testing precluded them from making an informed decision about whether to conceive a potentially handicapped child or, in the event of a pregnancy, to terminate it, states a claim for relief where the extraordinary economic, consequential damages of raising a disabled child are proximately caused by the negligence. Calculating and assessing those damages does not involve the supreme court's principal concern with the difficulty in weighing life.
. Since the calculation of the Schirmers' last claimed measure of non-economic, consequential damages-the emotional and physical injuries to them resulting from the added burden of raising and supporting a disabled child-does require the court or jury to weigh the value of being and nonbeing, the Schirmers cannot, as a matter of law, recover for their non-economic damages.
CONCLUSION
. The Schirmers' assignment of error is sustained in part. The dismissal of the Schirmers' complaint for failure to state a claim for relief is reversed, and this case is remanded to the trial court for further proceedings. Upon remand, the Schirmers may adduce facts to prove the elements of a medical negligence claim, including the extraordinary consequential, economic costs necessary to treat the birth defect and the additional medical or educational costs attributable to the birth defect during the child's minority.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded.
Doan, P.J., and Hildebrandt, J., concur.
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