Can Genetic Testing Impact a Birth Injury Lawsuit?

Matt Williams:
In any medical malpractice case involving a birth injury, one of the fundamental questions that needs to be answered is, what caused the injury? There are many potential causes of a birth injury. There's many potential causes of a brain injury. One way to determine the potential causes of a birth injury is through genetic testing. And I think it's likely something that at least the defense lawyers, hospitals, and doctors are going to advocate for more genetic testing to determine whether or not there's an underlying genetic explanation for the child's cognitive physical, emotional, behavioral deficits or the brain injury, rather than oxygen deprivation at birth, which could have been avoided had the doctors done what they should have done under the circumstances. So I think genetic testing really is something that ultimately is going to be advocated by the defendants rather than the lawyers representing the patient. If the defense is claiming that there's a genetic component, one argument could be made that it would benefit the plaintiff to get that genetic testing done to show that there was no underlying genetic cause. But if you order that testing, there is the possibility that something might be revealed that nobody knew about in the first place.