Description

About the Seminar
The Singapore Court of Appeal delivered two landmark decisions in medical negligence in the first half of 2017: ACB v Thomson Medical Pte Ltd and others [2017] SGCA 20 and Hii Chii Kok v Ooi Peng Jin London Lucien and Another [2017] SGCA 38. Both cases will have significant consequences for medical malpractice litigation. Thomson Medical involved a claim for the upkeep costs of a child conceived following an IVF mix-up, resulting in the child’s biological father being a stranger rather than the husband of the child’s mother. The Court of Appeal, drawing on concepts of autonomy, recognized a novel head of damage – loss of genetic affinity – and awarded damages to the claimant. The seminar will review the general jurisprudence on “wrongful birth” claims before analysing Thomson Medical to consider the implications of recognizing “genetic affinity” as a compensable loss; to consider the future of “wrongful birth” claims; and to explore the new principles underpinning punitive damages.
Hii Chii Kok rejected the application of the classic Bolam test to the duty to inform, endorsing, with some modification, the approach of the United Kingdom Supreme Court in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board [2015] AC 1430. Significantly, Hii Chii Kok also clarified the general Bolam/Bolitho principles set out in Khoo James and another v Gunapathy d/o Muniandy and another appeal [2002] 1 SLR(R) 1024, affirming that it is the court that must decide on what constitutes reasonable professional standards in the particular circumstance. The seminar will offer a detailed analysis of Hii Chii Kok to tease out its full implications for medical negligence.

About the Speaker
Kumaralingam Amirthalingam is Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore where he teaches Law of Torts and Criminal Law. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Australian National University and is on the Teaching Faculty of the Singapore Medical Association’s Centre for Medical Ethics and Professionalism. Kumar is presently Chair of the NUS Teaching Academy. From 2012 to 2014, he was on secondment to the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Singapore as a Deputy Public Prosecutor and Senior Director (Research & Policy). He has been writing on medical negligence for two decades, and was cited by the Court of Appeal in both the landmark cases decided this year.