“Wrongful conception” ruling against UK general practitioner

In December 2021, Evie Toombes successfully sued Philip Mitchell, her mother’s general practitioner, arguing that she would never have been conceived had he given her mother clearer advice about the role of folic acid supplements before and during pregnancy. Despite surgical interventions, she still experiences neuromuscular, bladder, and bowel problems. These disabilities notwithstanding, she has become a successful athlete.12

Mitchell had made the following note of the relevant consultation in 2001: “Preconception counselling. Folate if desired discussed.” Judge Rosalind Coe, QC, described this as, “completely inadequate”2 and held that his advice was negligent. Had he given the correct advice, she said, Toombes’s mother, Caroline Toombes, would have delayed conceiving and taken folic acid. The court held that had she done so, she would, on the balance of probabilities, have subsequently conceived a baby unaffected by neural tube defect.12

Recommendations at the time supported periconceptual folate supplementation, and Mitchell described this in his evidence as …