Recognising what is lost in reproductive harms: Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX

Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX (XX) turned on whether the courts should fund the creation of children for a woman negligently denied the ability to do so herself by awarding her the cost of pursuing surrogacy via a commercial service in California. The key issues were whether these costs should include surrogacy using donor eggs, and whether it was right for the court to agree to fund actions which, if undertaken in England, would arguably be in violation of the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985. While the subject matter of the decision is narrow, the decision in XX has broader implications about the relevance of public policy to damages awards, both in clinical negligence itself and more generally. It also raises important questions about how the law does and should value lost reproductive capacity