Marchant explains liability issues on Webcast

05/21/2008

Marchant explains liability issues on Webcast 

     Advancements in genetic testing for disease prediction and diagnosis have raised many legal questions about the liability and responsibility of physicians, Professor Gary Marchant said during a Webcast on Wednesday, May 21.

 GaryMarchantWebcast
Professor Gary Marchant
     Marchant, Executive Director of the College of Law's Center for the Study of Law, Science, & Technology, was among several experts invited to the Webcast sponsored by Helix Health, a medical group that advises physicians about genetic testing and test interpretation. It was titled, "How Genomic Medicine is Changing the Management of Breast and Ovarian Cancer."
     Some authorities have compared the importance of genomic medicine, in which the science of genomes is applied to the practice of medicine and medical decision making, to the discovery that bacteria cause disease. There already are more than 1,500 tests that can predict whether an individual is genetically at-risk for conditions such as cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's.
     But with this rapidly developing science come many legal questions, for which there is little case law, Marchant said. For example, parents have filed wrongful birth lawsuits against physicians, alleging they should have been counseled to have genetic tests to predict medical problems in their fetuses. Others have claimed doctors are liable when they fail to recommend genetic tests in patients whose family members have had breast cancer.
     "There's a lot of post hoc, second guessing of doctors," Marchant said. "Some is justified, but some clearly goes beyond the reasonable expectations of a doctor. And there are no clear guidelines on what they should tell their patients."
     The legal landscape is changing in that the standard of care previously was based on what the physicians in a local community provided, and now is leaning toward a more objective, national standard that involves what that care should be, he said.
     Controversy also exists over whether physicians should direct, not merely advise, patients to have genetic testing, and whether they should inform family members when patients have been advised, but refused, treatment or testing, Marchant said.
     Older physicians frequently are declining to learn about genomic medicine, and those in rural areas often have little access to such education, he said. And, unfortunately, there is a shortage of genetic counselors available to the medical community, Marchant said, noting the only training facility for them in Arizona, at the University of Arizona, is closing.
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