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Full-Text Articles in Medical Jurisprudence
An Uncertain Risk And An Uncertain Future: Assessing The Legal Implications Of Mercury Amalgram Fillings., Mary Ann Chirba-Martin, Carolyn M. Welshhans
An Uncertain Risk And An Uncertain Future: Assessing The Legal Implications Of Mercury Amalgram Fillings., Mary Ann Chirba-Martin, Carolyn M. Welshhans
Mary Ann Chirba
Trying to buy a mercury thermometer at the local pharmacy these days will result in a deluge of information regarding the risks of mercury and the proper disposal protocol for mercury thermometers as hazardous waste. Yet, inquiring about the risks of placing mercury in one’s mouth, in the form of a dental filling, is likely to meet with resounding assurances of safety from the dental profession. While such comforting disclaimers are meant to ease patient concerns, many continue to worry about the safety of dental mercury. This article will begin by describing the many safety concerns that surround the use …
Informed Consent And Patients' Rights In Japan: 2001 Epilogue, Robert B. Leflar
Informed Consent And Patients' Rights In Japan: 2001 Epilogue, Robert B. Leflar
Robert B Leflar
Japan is on a steeper trajectory toward the incorporation of informed consent principles into medical practice than the “gradual transformation” observed in a 1996 article, Informed Consent and Patients’ Rights in Japan. Among the most significant recent developments from 1996 to 2001 have been these seven: (1) the 1997 enactment of the Organ Transplantation Law permitting the use of brain death criteria in limited circumstances in which informed consent is present; (2) the strengthening of patients’ rights in clinical drug trials; (3) the continued trend toward increasing disclosure to patients of cancer diagnoses; (4) initiatives by the health ministry toward …
Informed Consent And Patients' Rights In Japan, Robert B. Leflar
Informed Consent And Patients' Rights In Japan, Robert B. Leflar
Robert B Leflar
This article analyzes the development of the concept of informed consent in the context of the culture and economics of Japanese medicine, and locates that development within the framework of the nation's civil law system. Part II sketches the cultural foundations of medical paternalism in Japan; explores the economic incentives (many of them administratively directed) that have sustained physicians' traditional dominant roles; and describes the judiciary's hesitancy to challenge physicians' professional discretion. Part III delineates the forces testing the paternalist model: the undermining of the physicians' personal knowledge of their patients that accompanies the shift from neighborhood clinic to high-tech …