The phrase "a fatal defect in" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a serious flaw or issue in something, such as a product, plan, or argument.
Example: "The engineers discovered a fatal defect in the software that could lead to data loss."
Alternatives: "a critical flaw in" or "a serious issue with".
Walter, groping toward deliverance, mourns "a fatal defect in his own makeup, the defect of pitying even the beings he most hated".
Mr. Lowell asserted that a "fatal defect" in the prosecution's case was that there was no evidence that Mr. Edwards took any action with specific intent to violate the law or that donors gave the money as anything other than a gift.
The satellite, originally designed for a 5-year study of the solar wind and interstellar dust from a unique orbit over the sun's poles, has suffered a fatal defect in its attitude-control system.
Another concern is that the law is overbroad, a fatal defect in criminal prosecutions.
Knockdown of ALKBH8 leads to a fatal defect in cardiac development in D. melanogaster, whereas an internal deletion in the gene encoding ALKBH8 results in embryonic lethality or sterility in animals surviving to adulthood in C. elegans.
The financial crisis also revealed a near fatal defect in the construction of the euro: by creating an independent central bank, member countries became indebted in a currency they did not control.
The discovery that lack of p53 in the mouse can lead to a fatal defect, clearly implicates p53 as an important factor in development.
In 1996 he and his wife were told that their unborn child had a fatal defect.
They felt strongly that if we could screen their embryos to avoid this, it was far more acceptable than aborting a fetus with a fatal defect.
The New York law says that failure to adhere to the election timeline shall be a fatal defect, but the New Jersey statute does not say that".
