If a medical provider’s substandard care causes the death of an adult victim who leaves behind only adult children or parents, Florida’s wrongful death statute prevents the adult survivors from bringing a claim for the loss of their loved one. Had the victim died due to any other form of negligence or misconduct, whether it be a car crash, premises liability, negligent security, a defective product, or something else, those same adult survivors would have had a claim under Florida law for their loss.

This dichotomy results from what has commonly been termed Florida’s free kill law, an unnecessary and awful statutory provision found in Florida Statutes, Section 768.21, which arbitrarily distinguishes between survivors of wrongful death victims of medical malpractice and survivors of wrongful death victims of other forms of negligence. The law violates equal protection, serves no legitimate purpose, and should no longer be in effect.