Should doctors be held liable for lying to their patients?
Asked by
Dr_Dredd (
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April 29th, 2010
One of Oklahoma’s new anti-abortion laws prohibits pregnant women from seeking legal damages if physicians knowingly or negligently withheld important information or provided inaccurate information to them about their pregnancy, even if a doctor lied to a woman about a fetal abnormality.
What do you think? Should a doctor have legal protection to misinform or lie?
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16 Answers
I think this is ridiculous and very anti-woman. Of course they should be held liable, like with anything else.
Yes, I think they should.
I think it interferes with a woman’s right to make an informed choice regarding pregnancy termination.
Furthermore, I would say that it at least violates the intention of Roe v Wade, if not the provision itself.
No, I don’t think they should be immune from liability, at least in these cases.
Screw all these states trying to circumvent RvW.
This is outrageous! This is not anti-abortion so much as it is anti-woman as @Simone_De_Beauvoir said! What if there are complications that result in a miscarriage or death of the woman? Could the doctor be held responsible then? What if the woman wants to know if her child has down’s syndrome or cerebral palsy simply to be able to prepare better? This is outrageous and immoral. If doctors are going to “do no harm” as the Hippocratic oath states, they need to inform their patients of everything!
I haven’t read the statute and have questions. However, simply based on your question and details, no, there should be no such legal protection for a physician.
@KatawaGrey I don’t know if the doctor can be held responsible for a miscarriage or death of the woman. I do know that the doctor cannot be held liable if a woman would have otherwise used the information to get an abortion.
And I agree. It sucks. Oklahoma’s governor vetoed it, but his veto was overridden. He said, “By prohibiting recovery of damages in wrongful birth and life malpractice actions, the legislation would allow unscrupulous, reckless or negligent physicians to knowingly withhold information or negligently provide inaccurate information to pregnant women without facing the potential of legal consequences. At the very least, pregnant women and their families should expect to receive accurate, comprehensive information from their doctor so they can make appropriate medical decisions. It is unconscionable to grant a physician legal protection to mislead or misinform a pregnant woman in an effort to impose his or her personal beliefs on his patient.”
I’m not a huge fan of lawsuits, but if a doctor deliberately screws up (and this is definitely screwing up, IMHO), he or she should face consequences.
@thriftymaid Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find the text of the law online. I do know that it was Oklahoma House bill HB 2656.
@Dr_Dredd Thanks. I’ll be able to find that and have a look.
unreal…so backward! Any person in any profession should always be held liable for negligence toward another human being!
Having not read it I can’t say for sure, but from what you’ve said “if physicians knowingly or negligently withheld important information or provided inaccurate information to them about their pregnancy” sure sounds like grounds for a lawsuit to me. I see no reason to offer protection to doctors who knowingly do this. There seems to be no medical basis for this, it’s one thing to not mention a minor/potentially inconsequential issue, knowing it will only cause undue stress (even that’s debatable), but this appears solely targeted at undermining the parents choice. Not to mention it’s hinderance to their ability to prepare accordingly if their child has some sort of medical problem that will require long term treatment should they choose to have it.
I’m not paying an exorbitant fee to be lied to and/or have information withheld. Doctors exist to tell me what I don’t know, not what they think I should or should not know.
Couldn’t the body responsible for licensing still remove the M.D.‘s license to practice medicine for violating the Hippocratic oath?
It’s still an abomination. Patients have the right to informed consent.
Of course, this should not be legal. Perhaps Oklahoma and Arizona should secede and form their own country of yahoos.
“Should doctors be held liable for lying to their patients?”
Absolutely. In most cases they get away with it as most people are misinformed or lied on.
Yes, lying isn’t a mistake, it’s a willful act.
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