Legal Struggles in the World of Medicine

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Rarely will a lawyer spell out more honestly, at least in public, the attitude of the legal profession toward medical-malpractice suits than Grad does in his recent review of Damages: One Family's Legal Struggles in the World of Medicine, by Barry Werth (Nov. 19 issue).1 Grad justifies the suit described in the book as follows: “[in] our society, there are no remedies available for such cases of catastrophic birth injury other than medical-malpractice actions” and “there is no way in which the high cost of caring for an infant for years can be met without relying on money from the hospital or the physician's medical-malpractice insurance.” Because “society does not yet have a sensible, rational way of protecting people against personal medical disasters,” Grad offers a simple solution: have doctors foot the bill. “Among many imperfect resolutions of problems, it is not the worst,” he states.