I didn't know this and I am not surprised by this. When a medical malpractice has occured the compensation to the family is determined by the victim's worth. Major factors that are considered in someone's worth include: Income of family, Highest level of education the victim and the victim's immediate family has achieved, residence. Now I know you need some sort of guidelines to determine the amount of compensation, but this is kinda screwed up.

Actually Don Allesandro, it is not only used in medical malpractice cases. It is also used in accidental death, murder, etc where settlements, distribution of donated funds and civil suits may be involved.

Many times, especially when there are surviving children involved, the time that the deceased parent would have spent with the child or children had they not died, is taken into consideration and calculated for any monetary damages that may be awarded to the family.

I personally know someone who went through exactly what you are talking about as far as considering the value of a person's life. Her husband was killed on 9/11 and when those in charge of the 9/11 fund were figuring out the amount of money that should be distributed to each family, she had to appear and was asked how much time her husband spent with the children while he was alive, how many times a week he mowed the lawn, how many hours a day did he help her in cleaning the house, who took car of bringing the car for repairs, etc. etc. Things you or I would never even think are considered in deciding monetary damages. All these factors were considered, calculated and then converted to a monetary amount, in order for those in charge to decide how much each family deserved to get from the fund.


Don Cardi

I am sure the process is very difficlut to determine the amount of money is rewarded, and a job I never want to do. But the context in which I thought about this is 2 families who have the same number of kids and one child is killed in the same way. One family is from a wealthy neighborhood and another from the projects. The family in the wealthier neighborhood would receive more compensation for losing their child than the family in the projects. But is one child really worth more to the family than the other? Considering that we are told that in the US anyone can grow up to be President.

I do see how 2 fathers are killed and one was a shitty father and one was "The World's Greatest Dad". That the family of the shitty father should receive less because they obviously have survived without his help. And the other family should receive more because they lost a true provider.

Seems pragmatic if somewhat cold. It sometimes amazes me as to the information that corporations find valuable.

That's sick. What the hell? There are 6.4 billion people on these planet and they are all human beings that shouldn't be judged in cases like this on conditions like these.
I can accept the income difference. When you have to struggle to get everything paid, a financial injection can make you in fact happier. If there is for instance 10,000 dollar to divide between two families, one of them verty poor, one of them very rich; then I would give 7,000 to the poor family, 3,000 to the rich.

I can accept the income difference. When you have to struggle to get everything paid, a financial injection can make you in fact happier. If there is for instance 10,000 dollar to divide between two families, one of them verty poor, one of them very rich; then I would give 7,000 to the poor family, 3,000 to the rich. [/QB][/QUOTE]


But it is the opposite. The rich family gets more than the poor family. thats why I think it is screwed up.

I can tell you that the calculation of awards by juries in wrongful death cases aren't that scientific. Sure, they take into account the expected earnings, life expectancy, loss of consortium, as well as the depth of the pockets of the responsible parties, but it is far from an exact science.

Funny story about juries and damages. A thief, fleeing a crime scene, runs head first into a parked city bus while looking away. The criminal breaks his neck, and becomes partially paralyzed, and promptly sues the city because the bus was parked 6-12'' beyond the legal limit from the curb.

11 of the 12 deliberating jurors immediately agree that this guy shouldn't profit from his crime and his own negligence caused the accident. The 12th, who recently lost a case against the city about parking tickets kept saying, "Give him $5 million."

The foreman, trying to reason with him, said, "Even if we wanted to, the judge said that the state laws limited the city's liability in these types of cases to only $2 million." The hold-out persisted and disagreed.

Finally the foreman got the hold-out to agree that if this were indeed the case, he'd go along with the others and find for the city. Accordingly, the foreman asked the judge by written note, which was read in the presence of the jurors, "Can we award more than $5 million?"

The City immediately settled with the thief for $500,000 before the jury could return with a verdict against the thief.

The State and Love are two mutually exclusive concepts.

What about the Ministry of Love?