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Extending Wrongful Death Damages To Kinship-Care Relationships, Sonya Harrell Hoener

Sonya Harrell Hoener

Millions of children are raised not by a biological parent but by grandparents or other relatives. These families face many difficulties not shared by traditional biological parent relationships, but have the same or even greater emotional bonds. Although many states have recognized the prevalence of these relationships, most states still ignore these relationships in the context of wrongful death actions. While all states and the federal government provide for recovery by family members in the event of wrongful death, the recovery is limited to immediate next-of-kin in most jurisdictions. In this article, I argue that legislatures should amend their wrongful …