This Essay will explore the limit-setting problems generated by the rise of liability for medical monitoring costs. These problems have not always been given sufficient attention by the courts, which have instead ventured into new ground without laying the necessary conceptual foundation for developing this form of liability. By considering the proper limits on the scope of liability for medical monitoring costs, we may not only identify the points at which such liability should be cut off, but also gain a better understanding of the core purpose served by imposing liability for this form of loss.

Uncertainty about the proper limits of this form of liability arises, in my view, because there is as yet no coherent and developed notion of what this form of liability is or what it is designed to accomplish. In fact, there are two very different conceptions of medical monitoring liability; each conception leads to a different way of thinking about the appropriate limits on this form of liability.

 
Citation
Kenneth S. Abraham, Liability for Medical Monitoring and the Problem of Limits, 88 Virginia Law Review, 1975–1988 (2002).
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