Current Events > Woman who inherited illness from father to sue doctors

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/25/woman-inherited-fatal-illness-sue-doctors-groundbreaking-case-huntingtons

Lawyers are bringing a case against a London hospital trust that could trigger major changes to the rules governing patient confidentiality. The case involves a woman who is suing doctors because they failed to tell her about her fathers fatal hereditary disease before she had her own child.

The woman discovered after giving birth that her father carried the gene for Huntingtons disease, a degenerative, incurable brain condition. Later she found out she had inherited the gene and that her own daughter, now eight, has a 50% chance of having it.

The woman who cannot be named for legal reasons says she would have had an abortion had she known about her fathers condition, and is suing the doctors who failed to tell her about the risks she and her child faced. It is the first case in English law to deal with a relatives claim over issues of genetic responsibility.

This could really change the way we do medicine, because it is about the duty that doctors have to share genetic test results with relatives and whether the duty exists in law, said Anna Middleton, head of society and ethics research at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Cambridge.

Your thoughts? Should doctors tell relatives of hereditary diseases? Sounds like she should be more mad at her father for having never told her?

Yeah this should probably be a thing imo.
---

toyota posted...

Sounds like she should be more mad at her father for having never told her?

This seriously. Not the doctor's fault her father didn't tell her.
---

stone posted...

toyota posted...

Sounds like she should be more mad at her father for having never told her?

This seriously. Not the doctor's fault her father didn't tell her.

This. The father is an ass. Good riddance
---

This whole thing is sad.
---

So.

The woman herself would have killed herself if she knew she had this disease before conceiving a child?
---

Years from now I wonder how the kid is going to feel when she learns her mom wanted to abort her.
---

Well, if it actually came through to affecting her she might. I might if I got something that bad, tbh. The day I can't move on my own is the day I take Hunter S route.
---

HydraSlayer82 posted...

This whole thing is sad.

---

cjsdowg posted...

Years from now I wonder how the kid is going to feel when she learns her mom wanted to abort her.

depends on if the psychosis sets in early or late.
---

PIITB415 posted...

stone posted...

toyota posted...

Sounds like she should be more mad at her father for having never told her?

This seriously. Not the doctor's fault her father didn't tell her.

This. The father is an ass. Good riddance

Bit harsh. He probably had his reasons for not telling her. But either way, people sueing everyone is really ridiculous. She probably would have sued her own father if he wasn't dead.
---

Why didnt the father tell her?
---

ManBeast462 posted...

Why didnt the father tell her?

with no information about her specific situation i can only point out that huntingtons causes fairly severe psychological issues that could have impacted it.
---

monkmith posted...

ManBeast462 posted...

Why didnt the father tell her?

with no information about her specific situation i can only point out that huntingtons causes fairly severe psychological issues that could have impacted it.

And shes blaming the hospital/doctors for not telling her, meanwhile doctor/patient confidentiality exists.
---

I don't understand why they just couldn't tell her about it. They didn't need to say she got it from her father.
---

I feel bad for the kid. If the kid does end up having it, the mom will probably leave her to rot based on how shes acting
---

Tyranthraxus posted...

I don't understand why they just couldn't tell her about it. They didn't need to say she got it from her father.

It's possible HIS main physician or practitioner had his file and other doctors or hospitals didnt?

There is definitely more to this than the article let's on.

I'm sure this isn't cut and dry.
---

chrono625 posted...

monkmith posted...

ManBeast462 posted...

Why didnt the father tell her?

with no information about her specific situation i can only point out that huntingtons causes fairly severe psychological issues that could have impacted it.

And shes blaming the hospital/doctors for not telling her, meanwhile doctor/patient confidentiality exists.

that's the core issue, does doctor-patient confidentiality win out over protecting the most people. similar cases have been brought against doctors that dont tell patients about their sexual partners HIV.
---

chrono625 posted...

monkmith posted...

ManBeast462 posted...

Why didnt the father tell her?

with no information about her specific situation i can only point out that huntingtons causes fairly severe psychological issues that could have impacted it.

And shes blaming the hospital/doctors for not telling her, meanwhile doctor/patient confidentiality exists.

In the US, at least, there can be exceptions when it involves abuse or STDs.

Im personally ok with doctors revealing this to affected parties
---

Why didn't her dad tell her?
---

Middle hope posted...

I feel bad for the kid. If the kid does end up having it, the mom will probably leave her to rot based on how shes acting

huntingtons disease is autosomal dominant, if the mother got the gene from her father then she'll develop symptoms in her 30s long before her daughter. her kid will get to watch her mother slip into insanity and die and know that the same fate potentially awaits her.
---

Also I wonder how she'd feel if her mom got an abortion for the same reason

Oh wait she wouldn't be feeling anything
---

Middle hope posted...

I feel bad for the kid. If the kid does end up having it, the mom will probably leave her to rot based on how shes acting

That's a leap. It's also possible that she just doesn't want her daughter to have that hardship.
---