Opinion ID: 1679366
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Duty of CareParents' Claim

Text: Plaintiffs allege that the defendant physician negligently performed a bilateral tubal ligation on Tammy Pitre and failed to inform her that the operation had been improperly performed. Consequently, they contend, she became pregnant and gave birth to a child with a birth defect. Clearly, under the circumstances, the doctor owed a duty to the Pitres to exercise the degree of care ordinarily exercised by surgeons performing such operations in that specialty. Moreover, if he was aware of the failure of the operation, he owed them the duty to inform them that the object of sterilization had not been attained. Virtually all of the important policy considerations affecting tort liability demand recognition of such a duty: e.g., the moral aspect of defendant's conduct, the need for compensation, the need for incentive to prevent future harm, the relative ability of each class of litigants to bear or distribute losses. See e.g., PPG Industries, Inc. v. Bean Dredging, 447 So.2d 1058 (La.1984); Bell v. Jet Wheel Blast, 462 So.2d 166 (La.1985); Halphen v. Johns-Mansville Sales Corp., 484 So.2d 110 (La.1986); Prosser & Keeton, supra at § 4. Furthermore, there is now quite general agreement that a doctor who negligently fails directly to prevent the conception or birth of an unwanted child, as by negligently performing a sterilization or abortion procedure, or by failing to diagnose or inform the parents that the child might be born with a birth defectbecause of a disease or genetic conditionbreaches his duty of care owed to the parents. See Prosser and Keeton, supra, § 55; Robak v. United States, 658 F.2d 471 (7th Cir.1981); Becker v. Schwartz, 46 N.Y.2d 401, 386 N.E.2d 807, 413 N.Y.S.2d 895 (1978); Harbeson v. Parke-Davis, Inc., 98 Wash.2d 460, 656 P.2d 483 (1983); Naccash v. Burger, 223 Va. 406, 290 S.E.2d 825 (1982); Speck v. Finegold, 497 Pa. 77, 439 A.2d 110 (1981); Eisbrenner v. Stanley, 106 Mich.App. 357, 308 N.W.2d 209 (1981).