Court Opinion

ID: 9756477
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:30:24.619036+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:23.477666
License: Public Domain

O’HERN, J.,
concurring.
In formal logic, the technique of setting up an argument that does not exist and then refuting that misrepresented argument is called the “straw man” fallacy. See Douglas Walton, A Pragmatic Theory of Fallacy 57 (1995). The straw man technique is fallacious because it leads to irrelevaneies and because it precludes the development and resolution of the true issues of contention. See Madsen Pirie, The Book of the Fallacy 160 (1985).
[Philip M. Nichols, Realism, Liberalism, Values, and the World Trade Organization, 17 U. Pa. J. Int'l Econ. L. 851, 882, n. 20 (Fall 1996).]
In this case our dissenting member has set up an argument that does not exist and then has proceeded to refute it. The false premise of the dissent is contained in its first sentence: “The majority holds that a physician who fails to warn a pregnant woman of a potential adverse effect of a prescribed drug virtually insures that her child will be born without birth defects from any cause.” Post at 520, 730 A.2d at 821, Pollock, J., dissenting.
Not so. This case' concerns the eventual manifestation of the specific defect about which the physician had an acknowledged duty to warn his patient. The Court’s opinion does not create an open-ended liability for obstetricians whenever a birth defect .occurs. For liability to be imposed, the birth defect must be parallel to the undisclosed material risk concerning which the physician had a duty to warn, taking into account the maternal indicators of the patient. Ante at 505-06, 730 A.2d at 812-13, Handler, J. We would not sustain a cause of action, for example, *519if Brandon had been born with a hereditary hip dislocation, a condition totally unrelated to the unwarned risk.
Considering the “maternal indicators” of this patient, she should have been warned that taking Provera during early pregnancy posed the risk of congenital anomalies, including congenital heart defect and limb reduction. Ante at 513-14, 730 A.2d at 817, Handler, J. Recall that this patient specifically inquired about the risks of having taken Provera during early pregnancy-and was told “not to worry.” Ante at 513, 730 A.2d at 817, Handler, J. When the birth defect that occurs is the very one about which warning should have been given, it cannot fairly be charged that the Court has “eliminated proximate cause” from a wrongful birth analysis. Post at 533, 730 A.2d at 828, Pollock, J., dissenting.
It may be that science is unable to establish to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Provera was the cause in fact of Brandon’s condition. That does not detract from the reality that the risk was one about which the patient should have been warned and that was the risk that eventuated. Science still cannot pinpoint the cause of cancer. Yet, men and women will want to avoid the risk of cancer by avoiding those substances that are believed to increase the risk of its occurrence. So too Melissa Canesi was entitled to know if certain substances were believed to pose or increase a risk that her child would be born with a limb reduction.
Even if the extent of the risk is not scientifically certain, some women will simply not risk ingesting a substance that could have such side effects. Consider, for example, the recent debate about silicone breast implants. Although frequently associated with the incidence of cancer, a definitive link has not been established to the satisfaction of many scientists. “Science Panel Members Explain Methodologies, According to Deposition Transcripts,” 7 No. 12 Mealy’s Litig. Rep.: Breast Implants 4 (May 13, 1999). *520“In suits over silicone breast implants, ... some argue that evidence of causation is lacking, but that does not mean a causal link does not exist. It means that we might not have found it yet because the scientific process is limited by its theories, its tools and time.” Roman M. Silberfeld, Scientific Law of Unintended Consequences, Nat’l L. J., Jan. 19, 1998, at A22. Persistent scientific debate would not relieve a physician performing a breast implant procedure of a duty to warn a patient that the risk existed.
In short, this case is not about a birth defect unrelated to the physician’s breach of the duty to warn. This case is about the occurrence of one of the very risks about which there was a legal duty to warn. It is not as though the record established that there was some other cause, genetic or environmental, that caused the defect. However difficult it may be to prove the etiology, Brandon’s birth defect appears to have been a case of the unwarned risk coming to pass.