about myself

[williaer]

I am undergoing medical treatment for what may or may not be MS. My father has not been a part of my life since I was about 15 years old ( I am 28). I am concerned that there are some things in his medical history that I need to know, or that may be of some value to me, on top of the fact that it is mortifying to tell my doctor "I don't know", when asked about my paternal family.

I know that I can find out where he lives and how to get in touch with him, but I have the following questions:

1. Do adult children have any rights to their parents medical records?    (limited of course to whatever questions my physician has).

2. Can an adult "sue" another adult to compel them to release this information- if they are their biological child and have a VERY good reason to want to know?

[socrateaser]

>I know that I can find out where he lives and how to get in
>touch with him, but I have the following questions:
>
>1. Do adult children have any rights to their parents medical
>records?    (limited of course to whatever questions my
>physician has).

No.

>
>2. Can an adult "sue" another adult to compel them to release
>this information- if they are their biological child and have
>a VERY good reason to want to know?

Anyone can sue anyone for anything. Can you win such a lawsuit? Not likely.

Standing to sue requires showing of (1) concrete and particularized injury, (2) fairly traceable to the defendant, (3) for which the court can provide redress.

Here, you could argue an injury, because you have a defective genetic structure. And, you could argue that your injury is traceable to your father, because he "is" your father. But, is could you prove that it is "fairly" traceable?

Could you show that "but for" your father's genes, you would not have MS? Did your father know that he was carrying the genes capable of causing MS such that he was negligent in passing them on to you?

Did your father have a legal duty to not conceive you knowing that you would have MS? Is your MS actually the product of your father's genetic material, or is it a random mutation, that your father couldn't have known about in advance?

Was this reasonably foreseeable to your father that you would have contracted MS, in advance of your father having sex with your mother?

As you can see, this is a suit that will get the attention of a court, and will be viewed as incredibly speculative. There will be a fear that if you succeed, then the courts will be flooded with children suing their parents for all manner of genetic negligence. This is a loser.

Now, if you could prove that your father knew that you would almost certainly get MS, and that he intentionally fathered a child for the purpose of giving the child MS, then you would have a case. But, proving this, absent your father admitting it in open court, would be likely impossible, so this also is a loser.

Your situation is a catch-22. In order to prove that you have standing to sue, you need to show that your injury is "fairly" traceable to your father for a reason other than pure accident (act of god). And in order to prove that this was other than an act of god, you must have standing to sue your father.

In short, absent a state statute in the jurisdiction, creating a legal duty that your father must provide you with this info, and then absent your father's failing to succeed in challenging that statute on grounds that it violates his constitutionally protected libertyor property interests without due process of law (i.e., a fair probability that a crime has been committed is generally required by due process to invade someone's body for a DNA sample, or to obtain their medical records), you simply cannot reach your father to force him to disgorge the information.

Sorry.

[williaer]

Sure- and thanks for the info. I think those were all things I knew, I just had to hear it from you.

 I don't blame him, I just want to know the other pieces of this puzzle. I understand, I woulnd't want someone invading my private medical records for just anything, but I also wouldn't withold anything I thought could help my child.

Perhaps I should just sue him for half of my college education ( or 1/2 of what I owe in student loans)- perhaps he'd settle and give me the information I wanted! Ha! Just joking on that one, of course.

[socrateaser]

>Sure- and thanks for the info. I think those were all things
>I knew, I just had to hear it from you.
>
> I don't blame him, I just want to know the other pieces of
>this puzzle. I understand, I woulnd't want someone invading my
>private medical records for just anything, but I also wouldn't
>withold anything I thought could help my child.
>
>Perhaps I should just sue him for half of my college education
>( or 1/2 of what I owe in student loans)- perhaps he'd settle
>and give me the information I wanted! Ha! Just joking on that
>one, of course.

You could just offer to pay him for a dna sample.

[williaer]

If only. Seriously doubting he will answer a simple phone call or letter, would take an act of God- or the law to compel him to do anything.

Sigh- this is a post for a "whoa is me board"- not this one. I guess if there are NCP's  still reading this post, remember that your information will always be valuable to your children, no matter how much you dislike the other parent...don't punish the children.