Scope of doctor’s duty of care in negligent failure to determine genetic problem

Meadows v Khan [2017] EWHC 2990 (QB)

The High Court has held that a doctor who was negligent in failing to discover that a woman was a carrier for haemophilia was liable for losses that she incurred bringing up a child who suffered from both haemophilia and autism. Although the child’s autism was not related to haemophilia, both conditions were the natural consequence of a pregnancy that would not have continued but for the negligence. Therefore the judge concluded that the scope of the doctor’s duty extended to preventing the child’s birth and the consequences that followed.