Court Opinion

ID: 9515056
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:53:26.0084+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:24.347757
License: Public Domain

KONENKAMP, Justice
(dissenting).
[¶ 27.] With today’s ruling, medical patients can refuse remedial treatment and still maintain a viable malpractice suit against their doctors for failing to provide that treatment. If that seems absurd, then read the majority opinion again, for that is exactly what it holds. The plaintiff here can both disclaim a medical remedy and sue for having been denied it. Thus, a patient’s own decisions about courses of treatment become wholly irrelevant. The doctor must pay for not giving a patient a choice the patient would never have chosen. The expansion of liability here is breathtaMng. Medical malpractice law now becomes a PickwicMan parlor game. There will be compensation for loss, even if only illusory, a product of statistics, conjured up and displayed in so many pixels. All a jury needs to do is count them, and, of course, add dollar signs.