Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Supreme Court deals devastating blow to Feres Doctrine opponents

ByLeo Shane III
Stars and Stripes
Published: June 27, 2011
 
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the latest military medical malpractice case involving the controversial Feres Doctrine, a defeat that strengthens the 61-year-old legal precedent and could effectively stop future legal challenges.
The decision follows the trend in recent years by the court not to hear cases involving the doctrine, which places strict limits on the ability of active-duty personnel to sue military doctors for medical malpractice.

Critics of the doctrine had hoped the court would be swayed by the emotional case of Staff Sgt. Dean Witt, who was left in a persistent vegetative state after an Air Force hospital botched what should have been a routine appendectomy.

But the court declined to hear the case without comment. Family members called that decision devastating.

Read the rest of the story here.

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