Reduction of the Quality of Life as an Independent Kind of Non-Economic Losses in Case of Damage to Health

Abstract

The paper is devoted to examination of the decline in the overall quality of life of a person who has suffered health damage as an independent kind of non-economic losses. The author defines doctrinal and regulatory prerequisites for the development of scientifically grounded criteria for its assessment and compensation in tort obligations. It has been established that, despite the use of the term «physical suffering» in Article 151 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, this element does not have reliable accounting methods when determining compensation for moral damage, largely due to the concentration of the appropriate method of civil rights protection on the act of unlawful behavior itself and the combination of the functions of conditional restoration of individually perceived losses and private sanctions. Taking into account significant foreign experience (Australia, Spain, Italy, USA, France, etc.), the author substantiates that consideration of adverse changes in the general parameters of the physical condition of the victim separately from the moral harm construction is predetermined by their role as a non-economic basis for the life of each person, resulting from a resource-oriented approach to the category of quality of life. The author proposes the method of calculating compensation for non-material damagebased on the principles of isolation of the assessment of physical conditions for temporary and persistent injuries, the complexity of factors of the impact of health damage on the overall quality of life of the injured person, the objectivity of the characteristics of the severity of pain. The scope of application of the construction of moral harm in legal relations under consideration is clarified, extending it to physical and moral suffering, developing from the accompanying intangible losses of «special value» (loss of the ability to enjoy professional activities and ordinary daily activities, loss of prospects for personal growth in sports and hobbies, etc.).