Law Commons^™

Cancer Genetic Susceptibility Testing: Ethical And Policy Implications For Future Research And Clinical Practice, Benjamin S. Wilfond, Karen H. Rothenberg, Elizabeth J. Thomson, Caryn Lerman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bioethics Policy: Looking Beyond The Power Of Sovereign Governments (Foreword), Robert L. Schwartz

Faculty Scholarship

Lawyers are trained to think in terms of power exercised by a sovereign-an institution authorized to enforce a procedurally appropriate decision with coercive force.' Generally, lawyers have a broad notion of what constitutes a sovereign. In the United States, for example, this notion includes the federal government, state governments, most tribal units, traditional territorial governments and their agencies-e.g., school boards, local public park districts, water run-off management districts, and flea abatement boards-and a host of other institutions. As a result, it is difficult for lawyers to recognize that policy also may emanate from other institutions that possess only persuasive authority, …

The Laws Of Genetics, Michael S. Baram

Faculty Scholarship

It used to be that high technology meant nuclear physics and missile systems, and presented the threat of physical destruction. Today, "high tech" means biotechnology and electronic communication systems, and the focus has shifted to concerns about more subtle problems like loss of privacy, inability to control personal information, and the discriminations and other adversities that often follow.

Genetic Information And The Workplace: Legislative Approaches And Policy Challenges, Karen H. Rothenberg, Barbara Fuller, Mark Rothstein, Troy Duster, Mary Jo Ellis Kahn, Rita Cunningham, Beth Fine, Kathy Hudson, Mary-Claire King, Patricia Murphy, Gary Swergold, Francis Collins

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Emergency Care And Managed Care - A Dangerous Combination, Diane E. Hoffmann

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Enterprise Liability And The Emerging Managed Health Care System, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

“Enterprise medical liability” is a term used to describe a system in which health care organizations bear responsibility for medical malpractice in addition to or instead of individual health professionals. Enterprise liability is in many senses a natural outgrowth of the increasing dependence of medical practice on institutional resources and expertise. Proposals for enterprise liability surfaced briefly from the academic literature into the political spotlight during the 1993-94 health care reform debate. At that time, objections to the concept as a basis for medical malpractice liability, even in a restructured health care system, were nearly universal.

Just five years later, …

The Managed Care Dilemma: Can Theories Of Tort Liability Adapt To The Realities Of Cost Containment?, Barbara A. Noah

Faculty Scholarship

Over the years, the United States health care system has undergone a transformation from a market comprised mainly of self employed physicians· in solo or small group practices to one in which far fewer physicians engage in this type of independent practice. More than three quarters of the physicians in this country now practice medicine within some form of managed care organization ("MCO") or see some managed care patients. The public increasingly perceives the care provided through MCOs as inferior to traditional feefor-service care. Responding to constituent pressures, legislatures in more than twenty states recently have considered bills regulating managed …

Patients' Rights In Managed Care - Exit, Voice, And Choice, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

The ability of consumers to complain effectively about services and products is a key ingredient of the market. In Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, economist Albert O. Hirschman argues that the ability to take one's business elsewhere may not be enough to empower consumers in markets where all providers act similarly. Instead of simply going elsewhere, consumers need to have an effective way to voice their complaints, in order to give providers an incentive to be more responsive to consumers' interests. Marc Rodwin has suggested that the Hirschman analysis may be particularly relevant to members of managed-care organizations and ``individuals with …

Tobacco Litigation As Cancer Prevention: Dealing With The Devil, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Tobacco companies have come to personify the devil, and strategies to exorcise tobacco smoking from the United States proliferate. Tobacco's demonic status is even reflected in popular fiction. John Grisham's latest bestseller, The Runaway Jury, for example, is a broadside attack on tobacco companies. He opens the book by noting that tobacco companies “had been thoroughly isolated and vilified by consumer groups, doctors, even politicians.” This was bad, but it was getting even worse: “Now the lawyers were after them.”

Breast Cancer, The Genetic "Quickfix," And The Jewish Community: Ethical, Legal, And Social Challenges, Karen H. Rothenberg

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Medical Discipline In The 21st Century: Can Purchasers Do It?, Frances H. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

Millenia prompt reflection about change, both past and future. Tons of newsprint have already been devoted to documenting the astonishing developments in medicine during the past century, and to speculating about what breakthroughs to expect in the next one.¹ Health economists generally accept that these changes, particularly advances in technology, have been the dominant factor propelling U.S. health care costs into the stratosphere over the past hundred years.' Analysts by the score have also examined the myriad ways in which this nation's health care delivery system has been (and must continue to be) transformed to cope with these expensive …

The Bell Tolls For A Constitutional Right To Physician-Assisted Suicide, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway's novel about the Spanish Civil War, ends with its American hero, Robert Jordan, mortally wounded and trying to decide whether to commit suicide with a machine gun or risk capture by trying to retain consciousness long enough to cover the retreat of his comrades. Confronting his impending death, Jordan thinks, “Dying is only bad when it takes a long time and hurts so much that it humiliates you.” Hemingway, one of the most American of American writers, committed suicide with a shotgun. Most suicides in the United States are committed with guns, but …

Reefer Madness: The Federal Response To California's Medical-Marijuana Law, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Marijuana is unique among illegal drugs in its political symbolism, its safety, and its wide use. More than 65 million Americans have tried marijuana, the use of which is not associated with increased mortality. Since the federal government first tried to tax it out of existence in 1937, at least partly in response to the 1936 film Reefer Madness, marijuana has remained at the center of controversy. Now physicians are becoming more actively involved. Most recently, the federal drug policy against any use of marijuana has been challenged by California's attempt to legalize its use by certain patients on the …

Principles And Passions: The Intersection Of Abortion And Gun Rights , Nicholas J. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, Professor Nicholas J. Johnson explores the parallels between the right of armed self-defense and the woman's right to abortion. Professor Johnson demonstrates that the theories and principles advanced to support the abortion right intersect substantially with an individual's right to armed self-defense. Professor Johnson uncovers common ground between the gun and abortion rights - two rights that have come to symbolize society's deepest social and cultural divisions - divisions that prompt many to embrace the abortion right while summarily rejecting the gun right. Unreflective disparagement of the gun right, he argues, threatens the vitality of the abortion …