Hedonic damages is a legal term that first emerged in 1985 in the research of Stan V. Smith, who was a PhD student in economics at the University of Chicago.
See for example Professor Cass Sunstein's University of Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No.
Based on William Daubert et al. v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and other admissibility tests, many but not all jurisdictions allow economic expert witness testimony on hedonic damages.
The measurement of hedonic damages is based on some 40 years of extensive, well-accepted, peer-reviewed, economic research on the value of a statistical life (VSL).
Some states do allow recovery in wrongful death cases, including New Hampshire, New Mexico, Georgia, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, and in Federal Section 1983 civil rights violation actions.
Such were the plights of two former inmates, William Gregory and David Pope, convicted and later exonerated on rape charges.
There is significant scholarship endorsing hedonic damages in personal injury and wrongful death cases.
The willingness-to-pay model is based on measuring what people pay for safety that results in small reductions in their risk of death.