RangerDave wrote:
Imagine a slightly different scenario:
Patient has a family history of some horrible degenerative illness with a genetic component, so he goes to a doctor for a genetic screening to see if he's going to get it. If the answer is yes, he intends to prepare a living will with a Do Not Resucitate order, because he doesn't want to suffer through the illness and bankrupt his family in the process. Doctor negligently screws up the test and tells the patient he's fine when in reality he does have the faulty gene.
Later that year, the patient has a massive heart attack and, because there's no DNR order, the paramedics resucitate him. He later develops the symptoms of the aforementioned genetic illness and discovers that the genetic screening doctor was negligent. Should he be allowed to sue that genetic screening doctor for pain and suffering and the costs of his illness on the theory that if the screening had been done properly, he'd have had that DNR and would now be dead and thus would not be suffering and incurring huge medical bills?
He should be able to sue the screening doctor for his negligence regardless. Any action he could/would have taken is entirely speculative and should not have any bearing on the lawsuit, I think.