Medico-legal aspects ogf obstetric scanning and genetic screening

While the battle against infectious diseases has seen many successes, the battle against genetic diseases has seen far fewer. This fact is sometimes forgotten since the incidence of births of babies affected with genetic defects has fallen dramatically in recent years; however that fall is due not to the development of cures, but to the development of obstetric scanning and genetic screening, and to the availability of abortion. This gives rise to a number of difficult legal problems. The law of negligence and the possibility of an action against the doctor exists in this field of medical practice as in others, and will be examined first. After that, a number of problems peculiar to this area will be raised.