Abstract
Decisions relating to reproduction are some of the most consequential decisions an individual can make. Recognition of women’s reproductive rights has expanded greatly over the last several decades, and many women are choosing to take steps to limit their fertility in order to exercise control over their reproductive lives. Sterilisation procedures are sought by both women and men for medical reasons, to accommodate financial and career planning, or simply because they do not wish to have more, or any, children. When a sterilisation procedure is unsuccessful, the consequences can be life-altering, resulting in the birth of a child, and at least eighteen years of child-rearing expenses and responsibilities. Where an adult has sought invasive medical treatments in order to prevent conception, these consequences are devastating, and the injury goes far beyond the pure financial consequences or the physical impact of the immediate pregnancy. Yet both tort law and New Zealand’s accident compensation scheme struggle to adequately conceptualise the true harm in wrongful conception. The current state of the law on wrongful conception fails to confer adequate respect upon the right to reproductive autonomy.