Law Commons^™

Depression: The Often Overlooked Sequela Of Head Trauma, Samuel D. Hodge Jr., Jack E. Hubbard

Cleveland State Law Review

Depression is a common sequela of head trauma. Approximately half of all individuals with a cranial injury will experience depression within the first year, regardless of the severity of the injury. The ailment is characterized clinically as a mood disorder, often associated with intense feelings of sadness. However, depression is more complex than mood disorders, as many mental and bodily complaints—such as insomnia, fatigue, anxiety, appetite changes, aches and pains, and lack of interest in previously enjoyable activities—are associated with depression. These intense feelings, particularly when combined with despair and hopelessness, can lead to suicide, a dreaded potential complication of …

Hiv And The Ada: What Is A Direct Threat?, Dawn-Marie Harmon

Maine Law Review

Anne, a surgical technician at a local hospital, recently learned that she was HIV-positive. She works in the emergency room and, as a part of her job, she hands surgical instruments to doctors performing emergency surgery. It is a fast paced and unpredictable environment. Her hands often come in contact with sharp instruments. Although Anne has never put her hands into a patient's body cavity, there is a remote possibility that she may need to do so in the future. There is always a possibility, however small, that she will cut herself and come into blood-to-blood contact with a doctor …

Conant V. Walters: A Misapplication Of Free Speech Rights In The Doctor-Patient Relationship, Katharine M. Mccarthy

Maine Law Review

In Conant v. Walters, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit addressed the application of the First Amendment's right of free speech to a federal policy that prohibited the recommendation of medical marijuana by physicians. This class action suit, brought by physicians and severely ill patients, successfully enjoined the federal government from enforcing its policy revoking the federal prescriptive licenses of physicians who recommend or approve of marijuana use by patients suffering from certain severe illnesses. The federal government's policy, issued in 1996 through a statement of Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control …

Negligence Per Se Theories In Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Litigation, Andrew E. Costa

Maine Law Review

The notion of addressing the vagaries of negligence per se theories in the context of pharmaceutical and medical device litigation seems to promise little more than a monograph anesthetized by a body of obscure pharmaceutical and medical device provisions viewed through the lenses of various states' negligence law. Maybe little more than that can be assured. However, the issue of how courts should address negligence per se theories in this context implicates a variety of “larger” (or, possibly, more interesting) legal issues in general and pharmaceutical and medical device litigation in particular. Perhaps foremost among these issues is the interaction …

Taking Advantage Of Patients In An Emergency: Addressing Exorbitant And Unexpected Ambulance Bills, George A. Nation Iii

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Deliberate Departure: Making Physician-Assisted Suicide Comfortable For Vulnerable Patients, Browne Lewis

Arkansas Law Review

On an episode of Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Kilgrave uses his mind control powers to get Jack Denton to give him both of his kidneys. After he loses his kidneys, Denton goes on dialysis and has a stroke. Therefore, when private investigator Jessica Jones tracks down Denton, she discovers that he is wheelchairbound and unable to speak. Denton goes to great lengths to write a note asking Jones to kill him. This fictionalized story may be the reality for some people. Everyone wants to live a happy life and to have a good death. Some people have the privilege of dying …

Unconstitutional Asymmetry Or A Rational Basis For Inconsistency? The Admissibility Of Medical Malpractice Prelitigation Screening Panel Findings Before And After Smith V. Hawthorne I And Ii, Matthew Asnault Morris

Maine Law Review

Pre-litigation screening panels have been instrumental in streamlining medical malpractice litigation in the State of Maine by culling claims from superior court dockets, encouraging settlements, and providing findings of fact that could prove useful for a jury if the case proceeds to trial. In enacting one particular provision governing the confidentiality and the admissibility of the screening panel process, however, the legislature may have sacrificed the constitutional rights of medical malpractice claimants in favor of a lighter docket. Two recent cases before the Law Court, Smith I and II, have challenged the constitutionality of Maine’s unique statutory approach to the …

The House Of Lords And The Discontinuation Of Artificial Nutrition And Hydration: An Ethical Analysis Of The Tony Bland Case, Moira M. Mcqueen, James L. Walsh

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Aids In The Workplace: Discrimination By Ignorance

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Withholding Or Withdrawing Artificial Nutrition And Hydration From Terminally Ill And Permanently Unconscious Patients: Some Recent Case Law And Contemporary Catholic Theology, Peter J. Ausili

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Termination Of Medical Treatment: Imminent Legislative Issues, Dennis J. Horan

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Termination Of Medical Treatment: Imminent Legislative Issues, Robert C. Robinson

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Explaining The Absence Of Surgical Procedure Regulation, Jonathan J. Darrow

Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy

Systematic evaluation of both existing and innovative surgical procedures is needed to make important safety and efficacy data available to surgeons, facilitating optimal treatment decisions. High quality risk-benefit data is also essential if the healthcare system is to honor its obligation to inform patients of relevant benefits and risks prior to obtaining their consent to treatment.

Yet for a variety of reasons, surgical procedures are not subject to direct regulation. As a result, surgeons consulting the available literature may find it inadequate to answer fundamental questions about optimal treatment choices. This failure of information increases the chance that, for years …

Confronting The Ghost: Legal Strategies To Oust Medical Ghostwriters, Deanna Minasi

Fordham Law Review

Articles published in medical journals contribute significantly to public health by disseminating medical information to physicians, thereby influencing prescribing practices. However, the information guiding treatment decisions becomes distorted by selective publishing and medical ghostwriting, which negatively affects overall patient care. Although there is general consensus in the medical community that these practices of publication bias represent a moral failing, the issue is rarely framed as a wrong that necessitates legal consequences. This Note takes the stance that medical ghostwriting constitutes an act prohibited under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and argues that physicians fraudulently named as authors …

Provisions Of Uncompensated Care In American Hospitals: The Role Of The Tax Code, The Federal Courts, Catholic Health Care Facilities, And Local Governments In Defining The Problem Of Access For The Poor, Charles J. Milligan, Jr.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Use Of Mediation To Recover Rights To Our Genes, Rachel Albert

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Decisions To Forego Medical Treatment: The Preferred Medical, Ethical, And Legal Approach, J. Stuart Showalter

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Distinctive Factors Affecting The Legal Context Of End-Of-Life Medical Care For Older Persons, Marshall B. Kapp

Georgia State University Law Review

Current legal regulation of medical care for individuals approaching the end of life in the United States is predicated essentially on a factual model emanating from a series of high-profile judicial opinions concerning the rights of adults who become either permanently unconscious or are clearly going to die soon with or without aggressive attempts of curative therapy.

The need for a flexible, adaptable approach to medically treating people approaching the end of their lives, and a similar openness to possible modification of the legal framework within which treatment choices are made and implemented, are particularly important when older individuals are …

Analysis Of The Proposed Tpp-Related Patent Linkage System In Taiwan, Ping-Hsun Chen

Journal of Law and Health

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement mandates member states to implement a patent linkage system vested in Article 18.53. To successfully join the TPP Agreement, Taiwan has begun the legislation of a patent linkage system by proposing an amendment for the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act. Article 18.53 requires a member either to adopt a notification mechanism under Paragraph 1 or to stay the issuance of marketing approval under Paragraph 2. But, Taiwan’s proposal includes both measures. Taiwan’s patent linkage system allows a pioneer drug company to register patents claiming (a) a material, (b) a combination or formula, or (c) pharmaceutical use. The …

Trading Safety For Innovation And Access: An Empirical Evaluation Of The Fda’S Premarket Approval Process, George Horvath

BYU Law Review

Congress created the premarket approval process (PMA) to provide a rigorous safety evaluation of high-risk medical devices before they may be sold on the U.S. market. Evaluating a PMA application requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct a lengthy, complex, and costly assessment of the extensive data a manufacturer must submit. But other policy concerns, notably a fear of hampering innovation and a desire to assure timely access to new technologies, have led Congress to relax some of the rigorous data requirements the PMA process imposes on manufacturers. Congress mandates that the FDA employ the “least burdensome” approach …

Germ-Line Gene Editing And Congressional Reaction In Context: Learning From Almost 50 Years Of Congressional Reactions To Biomedical Breakthroughs, Russell A. Spivak, J.D., I. Glenn Cohen, J.D., Eli Y. Adashi, M.D., M.S.

Journal of Law and Health

On December 18, 2015, President Obama signed into law a policy rider forestalling the therapeutic modification of the human germ line. The rider, motivated by the science’s potential unethical ends, is only the most recent instance in which the legislature cut short the ongoing national conversation on the acceptability of a developing science. This essay offers historical perspective on what bills were proposed and passed surrounding four other then-developing scientific breakthroughs—Recombinant DNA, in vitro fertilization, Cloning, Stem Cells—to better analyze how Congress is, and should, regulate this exciting and promising science.

Yours, Mine, Or Ours: Resolving Frozen Embryo Disputes Through Genetics, Carinne Jaeger

Seattle University Law Review

Part I of this Note provides some background on the current frameworks being used by courts in dual-progenitor disputes, while Part II presents the only two cases to deal with sole-genetic progenitor disputes and details how the courts conducted their analyses. Part III explains how courts establish legal parentage and how these legal parentage standards apply to frozen embryo disputes, specifically ones that involve only one genetic progenitor. Part IV proposes a new genetic framework to assist in the resolution of these issues. This Note concludes with a recommendation for future legislative intervention to aid in the widespread and uniform …

In The "Best Interests" Of The Disabled: Legislating Morality And The Power To Initiate Support Orders For Disabled Adults In Ohio, Kalynne Proctor

Cleveland State Law Review

Today’s reality is that many families have children who are faced with disabling conditions that prevent them from relinquishing their dependency on others. Often, the need for specialized treatment and care does not terminate once a severely disabled child reaches adulthood. While typically parents are relieved of their legal parental obligations to their adult-aged children, this is not the same case for parents with severely disabled children. In some respects, Ohio has recognized the financial difficulties divorced parents face when they are the sole caregivers of disabled adult children. Although Ohio law requires that the noncustodial parent in a divorce …

Retributive Medication: A Discussion Of A Maine Law Allowing Involuntary, Forcible Medication Of A Pretrial Defendant For The Purpose Of Rendering The Defendant Competent To Stand Trial, Ashley T. Perry

Maine Law Review

Innocent until proven guilty—it’s a phrase we have all heard, know, and accept. But there are circumstances where this simple concept is strained in its application, such as when a legally incompetent defendant is facing trial. After all, how can a defendant be proven guilty if he cannot stand trial? The Supreme Court of the United States has determined that forcibly medicating an incompetent defendant solely to render the defendant competent to stand trial is permissible under the Federal Constitution. However, the Federal Constitution provides only the floor-level of civil rights; states are free to set their own ceilings. The …

Compulsory Medical Treatment Of Adults, Peter J. Riga

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Home-Field Disadvantage: Tort Liability And Immunity For Paid Physicians During Disasters Within The Pacific Northwest Emergency Management Arrangement Member States, Stephen Seely

Seattle University Law Review

This Note identifies how the Pacific Northwest Emergency Management Arrangement member states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington apply tort liability and immunity to medical professionals during times of disaster. This Note also identifies an example statutory scheme that, if enacted, will provide equal protection to all physicians who provide care to disaster victims, regardless of their local or out-of-state status.

Legalization Of Assisted Suicide And Euthanasia: Foundational Issues And Implications, Sean Murphy

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Rebranding Death, Angela Wentz Faulconer

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

The Constitutionality Of Laws Banning Physician Assisted Suicide, Richard S. Myers

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

The Trouble With The Curve: Manufacturer And Surgeon Liability For “Learning Curves” Associated With Unreliably-Screened Implantable Medical Devices, Frank Griffin

Arkansas Law Review

No abstract provided.