TORONTO - A physician owes a duty of care to a female patient and not to a child she may conceive in the future, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday as it dismissed a lawsuit against an Ontario doctor filed on behalf of a child born with disabilities. Recognizing a duty of care by a doctor to a future child of a patient would affect the doctor's existing legal obligation, which is to the patient, a three-judge panel ruled in a unanimous decision. "Imposing a duty of care on a doctor to a patient's future child in addition to the existing duty to the female patient creates a conflict of duties that could prompt doctors to offer treatment to some female patients in a way that might deprive them of their autonomy and freedom of informed choice in their medical care," Justice Kathryn Feldman wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel.
A US court has sentenced an anti-abortion activist to life in prison for murdering the prominent abortion doctor, George Tiller, last year. Scott Roeder, 52, said he shot Dr Tiller at a church in Wichita, Kansas, to save the lives of unborn babies. George Tiller was one of the few doctors to offer late-term abortions. The case highlighted the bitter debate over abortion in the US. The judge said Roeder would not be eligible for parole for 50 years. Warren Wilbert, the judge at Sedgwick County court, said he gave Roeder the maximum sentence because he admitted stalking Dr Tiller for months.
Children born as a result of assisted reproductive technology (ART) have a higher risk of major congenital malformation than previously thought, show results from a study presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 14 June.
Recent research has shown the advantages for children’s welfare of open fetal surgery over postnatal treatment for myelomeningocele. However, a balance must be struck between complications of premature birth risked by prenatal surgery & the long-term advantages for affected children’s health, including mobility & neurological capacity. Risks for women are repeated surgery for intervention & delivery. The research raises legal & ethical questions about how fetal interests should influence women’s choices, & whether women may decline interventions in their pregnancies that offer their children lifelong advantages. Beyond fetal interests & women’s preferences are state interests in fetal life, which have been expressed in judicially authorized cesareans. Underlying issues are the nature of fetal interests, contrasting entitlements to care from their mothers of fetuses & born children, healthcare providers’ responsibilities toward fetuses, & duties to pregnant women.