Sheila D. Nealis and Michael Nealis

Summary

The court held that Oklahoma's wrongful-death statute permits a representative to sue for the death of a nonviable fetus that was born alive, regardless of the child's ability to survive outside the womb. It therefore held that the trial court's viability instruction misled the jury and required a new trial against Drs. Baird and Hartwig, while affirming the verdict for Dr. Knecht because the evidence established that the child had no significant chance of survival and his conduct could not have caused the death. The court also upheld the personal-injury verdict, rejected application of abortion statutes to a spontaneous delivery, and left issue preclusion for the trial court to decide. Summers, C.J., concurring in part and dissenting in part, would have retained viability as the governing standard and agreed with Justice Hodges's reasoning on that issue.