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The use of artificial intelligence (AI) by fertility clinics has recently been in the spotlight, raising questions about whether we want machines making fundamental decisions about human life including who is brought into the world.
This has highlighted issues such as informed consent, deskilling, and accountability for clinical outcomes which commonly emerge when new technologies are introduced into healthcare. It also echoes themes from the Monash IVF class action settlement last year where it was alleged that a new method for genetic testing of embryos was unreliable and resulted in the destruction of potentially viable embryos.
Assisted reproductive technology is just one area where new technologies are rapidly becoming part of a doctor’s toolkit alongside traditional tools of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Always of interest to healthcare providers, healthcare product manufacturers, and their insurers is the question of apportionment of legal liability among health practitioners and device or technology product suppliers in the event of an adverse outcome – in other words, in what situations, and to what extent, can a doctor blame their tools?
Join BN's Toby Biddle and Sam Pillay in our next First Thursday Club session where we will discuss recent developments in the area of assisted reproductive technology, as well as the general legal principles relevant to the use of new technologies in healthcare. We will examine informed consent implications and regulatory risks and explore the key factors in allocating responsibility between a healthcare professional and the technology they use.
We hope that you can join us to explore these issues and be part of our audience.