Trust not liable for laboratory error

The appellant NHS trust appealed against a decision that it was liable in a wrongful birth case and the respondent parents cross-appealed. The parents were carriers of a gene which could cause an inherited blood disorder. When the wife was pregnant she was advised to undergo DNA testing to detect whether the child would suffer from the disorder. A sample was taken and sent to the trust’s London hospital. From there it was sent to an independent specialist cytogenetics laboratory for foetal cells to be cultured. That was done and the sample returned to the hospital for testing. The test was negative. However, when the baby was born it was found to have the disorder. The parents sued the trust and the laboratory.