Foreword: Tort Law and Health Law: Intersections and Opportunities

Abstract

The influence of tort law on some basic aspects of health law is well known. For example, a patient may sue a physician in negligence when the physician deviates from the standard of care with respect to the performance of a medical treatment, surgical procedure, or diagnostic examination. By further example, the battery cause of action may be appropriate when a physician performs a medical treatment or surgical procedure without any consent from the patient. Or, a patient may allege negligence when a physician obtains technical consent to treatment but fails to provide information sufficient to enable the patient to give informed consent. At the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting held on January 4, 2019, in New Orleans, Louisiana, the AALS Section on Torts and Compensation Systems convened a panel featuring four distinguished speakers who examined other, less obvious ties and relationships between the fields of tort law and health law. Mark Rothstein, the Herbert F. Boehl Chair of Law and Medicine and the Founding Director of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, opened the panel. Professor Rothstein examined one of the most controversial and misunderstood issues in clinical genetics; that is, whether a physician has a duty in tort to warn a patient’s genetically at-risk relatives. Arguing that the physician’s patient, not the physician, is in the best ethical and legal position to issue warnings, Professor Rothstein recommended that physicians assist their patients by