Law Commons^™

Envisioning The Ftc As A Facilitator Of Blockchain Technology Adoption In The Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing Industry, Noah Spector

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Seemingly overnight, the kingpins of the direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT) industry shifted their focus from exploring their customers’ DNA to commodifying it. Companies like Ancestry or 23andMe that were once exclusively known as mere sources of “infotainment” now regularly sell consenting customers’ genetic data to pharmaceutical researchers or use it to develop drugs of their own. To gain these customers’ consent, both firms employ a series of long, complex clickwrap contracts that largely fail to apprise their readers of the potential risks of sharing their genetic data. Nor do these agreements provide any form of compensation to those consumers whose …

Instrumental And Transformative Medical Technology, Nicole Huberfeld Professor Of Law

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This Article considers how medical technologies impact universality in health care. The universality principle, as embodied in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), eliminated widespread discriminatory practices and provided financial assistance to those otherwise unable to become insured--a democratizing federal act that was intended to stabilize health care policy nationwide. This Article posits that medical technology, as with all of medicine, can be universalizing or exclusionary and that this status roughly correlates to its being "instrumental technology" or "transformative technology." Instrumental technology acts as a tool of medicine and often serves an existing aspect of health care; in …

Preemption Of State Law Claims Involving Medical Devices: Why Increasing Liability For Manufacturers Is A Perilous But Pivotal Proposition, Neil M. Issar

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

A circuit split regarding the preemptive scope of the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 (MDA) has widened over the past several years. The split encompasses both the circumstances under which the MDA implicitly preempts state law claims and the scope of the MDA's express preemption provision. Manufacturers of medical devices regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enjoyed many years of favorable rulings on the issue of federal preemption and deference to the primacy of FDA jurisdiction on monitoring or enforcement actions. However, the circuit split is reshaping the litigation landscape, and injured plaintiffs may rely on certain Circuit …

Late Fathers' Later Children: Reconceiving The Limits Of Survivor's Benefits In Response To Death-Defying Reproductive Technology, Jeffrey W. Sheehan

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

When Congress instructed the Social Security Administration to begin paying a social insurance benefit to "widows and orphans" in the 1930s, it simplified the process of determining an applicant's relationship to an insured decedent in two significant ways: First, Congress ordered the agency to honor the intestate laws of each state when determining whether an applicant was actually the child of a decedent, and second, it ordered the agency to treat any child who could qualify as an intestate heir as if that child actually depended on the parent financially at the time of the parent's death. Three-quarters of a …

Three And Out: The Nfl's Concussion Liability And How Players Can Tackle The Problem, Jeremy P. Gove

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In 1952, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study stating that a player should not continue playing professional football after suffering three concussions. As players continue to get bigger, faster, and stronger, the number of concussions has increased. In response to this problem, the National Football League (NFL) commissioned a study run by scientists and NFL team doctors to determine the long-term effects of concussions. That committee determined that no long-term repercussions exist after experiencing a concussion while playing NFL football. Despite the scientific community's critiques of the study, the NFL used the committee's findings to create the …

Electronic Medical Records: A Prescription For Increased Medical Malpractice Liability?, Blake Carter

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The cost and quality of health care is and most likely will continue to be one of the most important issues that the United States faces in the coming decade. Although no powerful antidote exists to cure this industry of all of its ailments, one potential suggestion to treat some of the symptoms is the introduction of electronic medical records (EMRs).

Members of the medical community, patients, and even politicians all agree that EMRs offer promising opportunities to improve the overall quality of health care. However, lost in the discussion of these opportunities, is a consideration of the potential side …

Over The Counter But Under The Radar: Direct-To-Consumer Genetics Tests And Fda Regulation Of Medical Devices, Lauren B. Solberg

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Direct-to-consumer genetic tests are laboratory-developed tests that are marketed and sold directly to consumers. They typically do not require a prescription or any other involvement from a consumer's health care provider. Consumers order these tests online and return a specimen, usually a saliva sample, directly to the laboratory. The results are mailed directly to the consumer, and no health care provider or insurance company need ever learn the contents of these results. The FDA does not currently regulate direct-to-consumer genetic tests, though tests for hundreds of different diseases are readily available to the public.

The FDA's approach to regulating genetic …

Assessing The Market For Human Reproductive Tissue Alienability: Why Can We Sell Our Eggs But Not Our Livers?, Brenda Reddix-Smalls

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Currently, an unregulated marketplace for assisted reproductive technology exists in the United States. For some people suffering from infertility, the ability to purchase human reproductive tissue, eggs, and sperm yields a maximum benefit when examined in a market context. Buyers, sellers, supply and demand, and technological advances all operate in a robust marketplace to provide the infertile with a supply of human eggs for reproduction with minimum state and federal regulatory control. Conversely, the buying and selling of all other human organs and tissues is prohibited in the United States by several federal statutes. The National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) …