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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 …
Accountable Care Organizations: The Clash Of Liability Standards With Cost Cutting Goals, Christopher R. Smith Esq.
Accountable Care Organizations: The Clash Of Liability Standards With Cost Cutting Goals, Christopher R. Smith Esq.
Christopher R Smith
This article seeks to examine the conflict between non-cost conscious medical malpractice liability standards and health care cost cutting measures within the context of Accountable Care Organizations (“ACOs”) under the new health care reform law. The article begins by providing an overview of the high level of health care spending within the United States health care system in order to provide a context for better understanding policymakers’ push for cost cutting measures, including ACOs. The article then examines the tension between cost containment efforts and provider medical liability standards through an examination of the “stuck in the middle” mentality that …