Phillips v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
14 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently February 2018
14 state decisions — followed in 13 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1346 (Federal Tort Claims Act)
Relies on Roe v. Wade · Griswold v. State of Connecticut · Story Parchment Co. v. Paterson Parchment Paper Co. · 26 Cal. 3d 588 - Sindell v. Abbott Laboratories · Diamond v. Chakrabarty
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a syndrome of mental retardation associated with a variable constellation of abnormalities caused by representation of at least a critical portion of chromosome 21 three times instead of twice in some or all cells; ... the abnormalities include retarded growth, hypo-plastic face with short nose, prominent epicanthic skin folds, protruding lower lip, small rounded ears with prominent antihelix, fissured and thickened tongue, laxness of joint ligaments, pelvic dysplasia, broad hands and feet, stubby fingers ... dry rough skin in older patients and abundant slack neck skin in newborn ....”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[t]he child does not allege that the physician's negligence caused the child's deformity. Rather, the claim is that the physician's negligence—his failure to adequately inform the parents of the risk—has caused the birth of the deformed child. The child argues that but for the inadequate advice, it would not have been born to experience the pain and suffering attributable to the deformity.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“This judicial reticence [to recognize a wrongful life action] stems partially from the fact that the theory amounts to a repudiation of the value of human life. The contention of wrongful life plaintiffs is not that they should not have been born without defects, but rather, that they should not have been born at all. The essence of such claims is that the childs very life is “wrongful.” We ... decline to adopt the doctrine which would recognize such a cause of action. Basic to our culture is the precept that life is precious. As a society therefore, our laws have as their driving force the purpose of protecting, preserving and improving the quality of human existence. To recognize wrongful life as a tort would do violence to that purpose and is completely contradictory to the belief that life is precious. The fact that Dessie Blake will live in a severely disabled condition is unquestionably a tragedy; nevertheless, we agree with the New Jersey Supreme Court in that life — whether experienced with or without a major physical handicap — is more precious than non-life. Thus, because Dessie Blake has suffered no legally cognizable wrong by being born, she has no cause of action. Even if we were to hold that wrongful life were a legally cognizable injury in Idaho, the impossibility of measuring damages would in any event preclude recognition of the cause of action.... The primary purpose of tort law is that of compensating plaintiffs for the injuries they have suffered wrongfull”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.