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Full-Text Articles in Medical Jurisprudence
Consciousness And Futility: A Proposal For A Legal Redefinition Of Death, Christopher Smith
Consciousness And Futility: A Proposal For A Legal Redefinition Of Death, Christopher Smith
Christopher R Smith
Recent controversies in Texas (with the Marlise Muñoz case) and in California (with the Jahi McMath case) have highlighted a lamentable flaw in the current legal conception of human death, and the difficulty of defining when death finally occurs. The unworkable notion of “brain-death” remains the law in every state in the union, yet the philosophical and scientific foundations of this notion remain open to attack. This article posits that death is a fundamentally social construct, and that it is society at large (through its laws, public opinions, religious attitudes, etc.) that actually defines death. This essay then argues that …
Throwing Dirt On Doctor Frankenstein’S Grave: Access To Experimental Treatments At The End Of Life, Michael J. Malinowski
Throwing Dirt On Doctor Frankenstein’S Grave: Access To Experimental Treatments At The End Of Life, Michael J. Malinowski
Michael J. Malinowski
All U.S. federal research funding triggers regulations to protect human subjects known as the Common Rule, a collaborative government effort that spans seventeen federal agencies. The Department of Health and Human Services has been in the process of re-evaluating the Common Rule comprehensively after decades of application and in response to the jolting advancement of biopharmaceutical science. The Common Rule designates specific groups as “vulnerable populations”—pregnant women, fetuses, children, prisoners, and those with serious mental comprehension challenges—and imposes heightened protections of them. This article addresses a question at the cornerstone of regulations to protect human subjects as biopharmaceutical research and …