Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Hiv And Aids In Africa: Compulsory Licensing Under Trips And Doha Declaration, Ufuoma Barbara Akpotaire

Ufuoma Barbara Akpotaire

In today’s world, there is a lot of focus on issues such as militancy, global warming, terrorism, racism and even politics. Unfortunately, there is a problem that has killed and is still killing far more people than any of the above issues. That problem is HIV/AIDS.

AIDS is a serious medical condition that predisposes patients towards opportunistic infecting tumors, dementia and death. HIV is the viral agent associated with AIDS. Africa is without doubt more heavily affected by HIV/AIDS than any other region of the world. Although Nigeria’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is still relatively low compared to some countries in …

Immortal Beloved And Beleaguered: Towards The Integration Of The Law On Assisted Death And The Scientific Pursuit Of Life Extension, Mary J. Shariff

Mary J. Shariff

This article sets out to explore the scientific pursuit of life extension in the context of current controversies surrounding death, particularly those that involve competent individuals who desire death but are unable to bring it about without the assistance of another individual. Humans are on the threshold of being able to significantly increase their life expectancy yet, in Canada and elsewhere, we have still not come to any consensus as to how we are permitted to die. After a brief introduction in Part I, Part II of this article summarizes the legal position in Canada on assisted death and explores …

Too Old To Treat: Is Health Care Of Right To Older Persons In Uganda?, Med Ssengooba

Med Ssengooba

This paper analyses health in the context of older persons/ elderly (words used interchangeably) in Uganda. It offers an insight into health care in Uganda generally and the challenges that older persons experience in accessing health care services. The paper discusses the legal basis upon which older persons can enforce the right to health care in courts of law, and thus it offers a critique of Uganda’s domestic legislation, as well as international instruments to which Uganda is a State Party. The paper finally draws best practices from other jurisdictions as it proposes recommendations on how best Uganda’s health care …

The Rise, Fall And Rise Again Of The Genetic Foundation For Legal Parentage Determination, Yehezkel Margalit

Hezi Margalit

Recently, we have witnessed dramatic changes in the formation of the family and parenthood. One of the results of those shifts is a growing number of children growing up outside of the traditional marriage framework. Therefore, the dilemma of determining a child's parentage, which was usually resolved by a legal fiction as to the child's legal parents, is becoming increasingly problematic. It is appropriate that any discussion of the establishment of legal parentage should start with a study of the rise of the most popular modern model, the genetic model.

It is relevant to point out that from the beginning …

China In Context: Energy, Water, And Climate Cooperation, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Climate resilient communities can be achieved with the support of global research, development, deployment, and diffusion of environmentally sound low GHG emission technologies and processes. Technology cooperation should lower emissions remaining mindful of biodiversity, ecosystem services and livelihoods. China and the United States need to respond effectively to both economic and climate crises and can do so in part by cooperating on environmentally sound technology that transforms the global use of energy.

Collaborative Community-Based Natural Resource Management, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This article analyzes the importance of increasing civil society actor access to and influence in international legal and policy negotiations, drawing from academic scholarship on governance, conservation and environmental sustainability, natural resource management, observations of civil society actors, and the authors’ experiences as participants in international environmental negotiations.

Valuing Having Children, Carter Dillard

Carter Dillard

Are there objective values on which to base the claim of a right to procreate? Can we articulate reasons for having children so powerful that they justify our doing so, as a matter of right, even where it would conflict with the interests and values of others? This Article systematically and critically examines many of the values that, before now, courts and commentators have simply presumed and relied upon when making the claim that there is and ought to be a fundamental right to have children. This Article first develops a methodology for examining the values and interests on which …

Future Children As Property, Carter Dillard

Carter Dillard

Between Skinner v. Oklahoma and the advent of modern substantive due process, procreation, at least in the eyes of many courts and commentators, became entrenched as a fundamental, if not absolute, right. And yet ironically, the establishment of this right, often taken as symbolic of personal liberty, has diminished autonomy for those persons inevitably caught on the other end of it – our future children. Expanding procreative autonomy has diminished public norms that might otherwise ensure that future children are born into circumstances that also expand their autonomy. Instead, the broad, modern, privacy-based version of the right to procreate leaves …

Antecedent Law: The Law Of People Making, Carter Dillard

Carter Dillard

In our conception of law we have largely presumed the process by which the people whose behavior the law is meant to regulate come to be present and susceptible to the law's influence. As a result, that process is largely outside of our account of the law, and any role the law might have over the matter is relatively ignored. This article introduces a simple and concrete conceptual device, a form of law called antecedent law, which seeks to undo this presumption and refocus our attention on that which can determine the presence of persons in the polity and their …

Statutes Undermine The Progress Made: The Criminalisation Of Positive Women, Aziza Ahmed, Beri Hull, Alice Welbourn, Emma Bell, Heidi Nass

Aziza Ahmed

Criminalisation laws have a specific and nuanced impact on women living with HIV. An understanding of the consequences of such laws will help positive women and other advocates to combat negative uses of such laws, and to frame and advocate for effective alternatives for HIV prevention. This article helps tease out some of the ways that criminalisation can negatively impact the lives of positive women in particular: the explicit sex discrimination in the laws, the gender bias in courtrooms, the impact on marginalised women, and the increase in stigma and discrimination through criminalisation laws.

Impact Of The Australia-Us Free Trade Agreement On Australian Medicines Regulation And Prices, Thomas A. Faunce, James Bai, Duy Nguyen

Thomas A Faunce

The Australia – United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) came into force on 1 January 2005. Before and subsequently to the AUSFTA being concluded, controversy surrounded the debate over its impact on Australia ’ s health policy, specifically on regulation of pharmaceutical patents and Australia ’ s cost-effectiveness system relating to prescription medicine prices known as the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). This article examines the expectations of both parties in the pharmaceutical sector with regard to the AUSFTA, as well as how successfully they were achieved. It seeks to analyse important relevant outcomes for regulators, the public and pharmaceutical industry, …

Nanotechnology And The International Law Of Weaponry: Towards International Regulation Of Nano-Weapons., Thomas A. Faunce, Hitoshi Nasu

Thomas A Faunce

The development of nanotechnology for military application is an emerging area of research and development, the pace and extent of which has not been fully anticipated by international legal regulation. Nano-weapons are referred to here as objects and devices using nanotechnology or causing effects in nano-scale that are designed or used for harming humans. Such weapons, despite their controversial human and environmental toxicity, are not comprehensively covered by specific, targeted regulation under international law. This article critically examines current international humanitarian law and arms control law regimes to determine whether significant gaps exist in the regulation of nanotechnology focused on …

Procreation, Harm, And The Constitution, Carter Dillard

Carter Dillard

This Essay provides relatively novel answers to two related questions: First, are there moral reasons to limit the sorts of existences it is permissible to bring people into, such that one would be morally prohibited from procreating in certain circumstances? Second, can the state justify a legal prohibition on procreation in those circumstances using that moral reasoning, so that the law would likely be constitutional?

These questions are not new, but my answers to them are and add to the existing literature in several ways. First, I offer a possible resolution to a recent debate among legal scholars regarding what …