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Lawsuit on Not Knowing Father's Test Result

A woman in the UK is moving forward with her lawsuit against three National Health Service Trusts for not informing her that her father had Huntington's disease, the BBC reports.

The woman, known as ABC, says the hospitals had a duty of care to inform her of her father's condition, the BBC adds. But her father had asked his doctors to not tell her, as he was afraid she might harm herself or have an abortion, as she was pregnant at the time, it adds. Later testing revealed ABC did inherit the Huntington's disease gene, it notes.

ABC told the High Court that she found out about her father's diagnosis by accident, four months after she had given birth, and says that if she had known beforehand, she would have had an abortion, the BBC adds.

Philip Havers, an attorney for the trusts, argued, according to the BBC, that they did not have "a duty to disclose to her confidential information about her father against his express wishes."

This case, the Economist previously reported, contrasts with one in Germany in which a woman is suing because she learned that her ex-husband tested positive for Huntington's disease and that her sons may have also inherited the condition.

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