Digital Commons Network^™

The Neglect Of Persons With Severe Brain Injury To The United States: An International Human Rights Analysis, Tamar Ezer, Megan S. Wright, Joseph J. Wright

Articles

Brain injury contributes more to death and disability globally than any other traumatic incident. While the past decade has seen significant medical advances, laws and policies remain stumbling blocks to treatment and care. The quality of life of persons with severe brain injury often declines with unnecessary institutionalization and inadequate access to rehabilitation and assistive technologies. This raises a host of rights violations that are hidden, given that persons with severe brain injury are generally invisible and marginalized. This article highlights the current neglect and experiences of persons with severe brain injury in the United States, analyzing the rights to …

Access To Lifesaving Medical Resources For African Countries: Covid-19 Testing And Response, Ethics, And Politics, Matthew M. Kavanagh, Ngozi A. Erondu, Oyewale Tomori, Victor J. Dzau, Emelda A. Okiro, Allan Maleche, Ifeyinwa C. Aniebo, Umunya Rugege, Charles B. Holmes, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has revealed how strikingly unprepared the world is for a pandemic and how easily viruses spread in our interconnected world. A governance crisis is unfolding alongside the pandemic as health officials around the world compete for access to scarce medical supplies. As governments of African countries, and those in low-income and middle-income countries around the world, seek to avoid potentially catastrophic epidemics and learn from what has worked in other countries, testing and other medical resources are of concern. With accelerating spread, funding is urgently needed. Yet even where there is enough money, many African health …

Digital Smartphone Tracking For Covid-19: Public Health And Civil Liberties In Tension, I. Glenn Cohen, Lawrence O. Gostin, Daniel J. Weitzner

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Viewpoint compares manual and digital strategies for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) contact tracing, describes how countries in Asia and Europe have used smartphone tracking, and discusses privacy and discrimination concerns and strategies for balancing public health and civil liberties in the US.

When Does A Major Outbreak Become A Public Health Emergency Of International Concern?, David N. Durrheim, Lawrence O. Gostin, Keymanthri Moodley

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The process of determining whether a Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC) exists and should be declared has drawn increasing criticism over the past few years with allegations that it is more political than technical. Delaying declaration, where appropriate, means that the opportunity of garnering international solidarity and necessary resources in the early phases of epidemics, when public health measures may be more effective, is lost. A reform agenda aimed at enhancing WHO/Emergency Committee transparency and objectivity for the PHEIC declaration process is required.

Minding The Gaps In Regulation Of Do-It-Yourself Biotechnology, Barbara J. Evans

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

No abstract provided.

When Improper Disposal Leads To More Than Hospital Visits: The Need For A National Standard For Used Medical Sharps, Albana Zherka

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Has Global Health Law Risen To Meet The Covid-19 Challenge? Revisiting The International Health Regulations To Prepare For Future Threats, Lawrence O. Gostin, Roojin Habibi, Benjamin Mason Meier

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Global health law is essential in responding to the infectious disease threats of a globalizing world, where no single country, or border, can wall off disease. Yet, the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic has tested the essential legal foundations of the global health system. Within weeks, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has circumnavigated the globe, bringing the world to a halt and exposing the fragility of the international legal order. Reflecting on how global health law will emerge in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will be crucial to examine the lessons learned in the COVID-19 response and the reforms required to …

The Origins And Future Of Global Health Law: Regulation, Security, And Pluralism, Sam F. Halabi

Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a global health crisis unlike any seen in the seventy-five years since the United Nations and the World Health Organization were formed - one that is killing people, spreading human suffering, and upending people's lives. But this is much more than a health crisis. It is a human crisis. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is attacking societies at their core. It is therefore a crucial point around which to focus the capability of national and global institutions to address this essential threat to human health and life.

The purposes of this Article are to revisit and …

Why We (Probably) Must Deliberately Infect, Adam J. Kolber

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Coronavirus And The Risks To The Elderly In Long-Term Care, William Gardner, David States, Nicholas Bagley

Articles

The elderly in long-term care (LTC) and their caregiving staff are at elevated risk from COVID-19. Outbreaks in LTC facilities can threaten the health care system. COVID-19 suppression should focus on testing and infection control at LTC facilities. Policies should also be developed to ensure that LTC facilities remain adequately staffed and that infection control protocols are closely followed. Family will not be able to visit LTC facilities, increasing isolation and vulnerability to abuse and neglect. To protect residents and staff, supervision of LTC facilities should remain a priority during the pandemic.

Health Inequalities, Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The vast health inequalities in the United States and beyond that COVID-19 makes glaringly evident are frequently masked by aggregate statistics, which for years had been showing health improvements. Yet these improvements were inequitably distributed, with benefits disproportionately going to wealthier – and in the United States, white – populations. Globally, vast health inequities also exist among and within countries. The inequalities, which have also helped fuel the rise of populism, extend far beyond health care, including to wealth and income. Disaggregated, granular data is critical to understanding these inequalities.

Addressing health inequities must extend far beyond universal access to …

Indemnifying Precaution: Economic Insights For Regulation Of A Highly Infectious Disease, Christopher Robertson, K Aleks Schaefer, Daniel Scheitrum, Sergio Puig, Keith Joiner

Faculty Scholarship

Economic insights are powerful for understanding the challenge of managing a highly infectious disease, such as COVID-19, through behavioral precautions including social distancing. One problem is a form of moral hazard, which arises when some individuals face less personal risk of harm or bear greater personal costs of taking precautions. Without legal intervention, some individuals will see socially risky behaviors as personally less costly than socially beneficial behaviors, a balance that makes those beneficial behaviors unsustainable. For insights, we review health insurance moral hazard, agricultural infectious disease policy, and deterrence theory, but find that classic enforcement strategies of punishing noncompliant …

Emergency Petition For Writ Of Habeas Corpus, Injunctive, And Declaratory Relief - Class Action, Joseph Mead, David J. Carey, Mark A. Vander Laan, Freda Levenson, David Singleton

Law Faculty Briefs and Court Documents

As a tragic combination of infectious and deadly, COVID-19 poses a once-in-a-lifetime threat on a worldwide scale. Every state and territory in the United States has now been impacted, with nearly half a million cases and over 20,000 deaths reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Even under ordinary conditions, each person who contracts this illness can be expected to infect between 2 and 3 others.

Cramped, overcrowded prisons amplify this threat. With thousands of people literally stacked on top of each other and unable to move around without rubbing shoulders, such environments are fundamentally incompatible with …

Regulating Care Robots, Valarie K. Blake

Scholarly Works

Care robots are already assisting the elderly in some nursing homes around the globe and could be in widespread use in hospitals and homes sooner than we think. These robots promise great hope for patients: to help them remain independent, to provide assistance with daily living, to comfort and distract during procedures, to educate, and to be companions during the vulnerable and lonely times in patient lives. Yet, care robots will have unprecedented access to personal lives, combined with designs aimed at winning patient trust and affection, and with recording and sensory capabilities beyond any human. They pose significant risk …

The Intellectual Property Of Vaccines: Takeaways From Recent Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Ana Santos Rutschman

Michigan Law Review Online

In late 2019 and early 2020, a new strain of coronavirus, a family of pathogens causing serious respiratory illness, began infecting populations across the globe. A quick uptick in COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel pathogen, prompted the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020. By mid-February 2020, with 26 countries reporting cases of COVID-19 infection, the global case count had surpassed 50,000, and had resulted in over 1,500 deaths. The World Health Organization elevated the status of the outbreak to a pandemic in mid-March. As of early …

Student Note: Finding The Positive In A Positive Drug Test: How Narrowing The Definition Of An Individualized Pre-Employment Assessment Under The Ada Can Encourage Recovery From Opioid Dependence, Sarah Ferraro

Belmont Health Law Journal

This note will address the disparities in the way courts have analyzed the direct threat exception to ADA protection, and why a uniform application of the exception is crucial to both employers and those in recovery. Part I examines how opioids have devolved from an effective pain management tool to a national enemy. This section will answer common questions about why opioids are so addictive and why doctors prescribe them in the first place. It also addresses the scope of the ADA and the direct threat exception used to justify a decision not to hire a prescription drug user, as …

How Can Pennsylvania Protect Itself From Its Own Measles Outbreak?, Megan M. Riesmeyer, Kristen Feemster

Faculty Scholarly Works

When a response to inaccurate information strives to be an informative exercise of its own, it is difficult to balance the desire to respond point by point to mischaracterized, misleading, or untrue information, with the need to simply offer a complete picture of facts. This article is a response to Abigail Wenger’s article regarding

vaccinations. To reply to each mischaracterization or inaccuracy in turn means this response loses its own informative intent and becomes simply a rebuttal. However, to ignore mischaracterizations and inaccuracies is to risk the reader’s acceptance of those points as true. Through illustrative examples in the United …

From Public Health To Public Wealth: The Case For Economic Justice, Barbara L. Atwell

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines how we can overlay the principle of serving the common good, which undergirds public health law, onto financial well-being. It suggests that we apply public health law principles to corporate law and culture. In matters of public health, we view quite broadly states' police power to protect the public good. Government is also empowered to protect the general welfare in matters of financial well-being. Using the “general welfare” as a guidepost, this Article challenges the conventional wisdom that corporations exist solely to maximize profit and shareholder value to the exclusion of virtually everything else. It proposes two …

The Lancet–O’Neill Institute/Georgetown University Commission On Global Health And Law: The Power Of Law To Advance The Right To Health, Jenny Kaldor, Lawrence O. Gostin, John T. Monahan, Katie Gottschalk

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Lancet–O’Neill Institute/Georgetown University Commission on Global Health and Law published its report on the Legal Determinants of Health in 2019. The term ‘legal determinants of health’ draws attention to the power of law to influence upstream social and economic influences on population health. In this article, we introduce the Commission, including its background and rationale, set out its methodology, summarize its key findings and recommendations and reflect on its impact since publication. We also look to the future, making suggestions as to how the global health community can make the best use of the Commission’s momentum in relation …

Regulating Care Robots, Valarie K. Blake

Law Faculty Scholarship

Care robots already assist the elderly in some nursing homes around the globe and could be in widespread use in hospitals and private homes sooner than we think. These robots promise great hope for patients: robots can provide increased independence, assistance with daily living, comfort and distraction during procedures, education, and companionship during vulnerable and lonely times in patients' lives. Despite these promising features, there are a number of concerns; care robots, designed with the aim of winning patient trust and affection, have unprecedented access to personal lives as well as recording and sensory capabilities beyond any human. They pose …

Law In The Time Of Covid-19, Katharina Pistor

Faculty Books

The COVID-19 crisis has ended and upended lives around the globe. In addition to killing over 160,000 people, more than 35,000 in the United States alone, its secondary effects have been as devastating. These secondary effects pose fundamental challenges to the rules that govern our social, political, and economic lives. These rules are the domain of lawyers. Law in the Time of COVID-19 is the product of a joint effort by members of the faculty of Columbia Law School and several law professors from other schools.

This volume offers guidance for thinking about some the most pressing legal issues the …

Fda In The Time Of Covid-19, Elizabeth Mccuskey

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past century, Congress has made the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) responsible for regulating the safety and efficacy of drugs and devices being deployed in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The FDA’s regulatory infrastructure was built for public health threats and to combat manufacturers' misinformation about treatments.

This article spotlights the ways in which FDA has been adapting to a new challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic: combating misinformation emanating from within the executive branch.

Fertility Fraud And Proposal For Florida Legislation, Cheyenne Dunn

Child and Family Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Responding To Covid‐19: How To Navigate A Public Health Emergency Legally And Ethically, Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman, Sarah A. Wetter

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Widespread social separation is rapidly becoming the norm, including closure of schools and universities, tele-commuting to work, bans on large gatherings, and millions of people isolated in their homes or make-shift facilities. Bans on international travel are already pervasive. Domestic travel restrictions are exceedingly rare, but now within the realm of possibility. Officials are even discussing cordon sanitaires (guarded areas where people may not enter or leave), popularly described as “lockdowns” or mass quarantines.

When the health system becomes stretched beyond capacity, how can we ethically allocate scarce health goods and services? How can we ensure that marginalized populations can …

Telemedicine: Benefits, Challenges, And Its Great Potential, Samantha J. Achenbach

Health Law and Policy Brief

No abstract provided.

Hepatitis C: There's A Cure, But Who Will Bail Out The Department Of Corrections?, Monica K. Houston

Health Law and Policy Brief

No abstract provided.

Ivf Errors - Is This Only The Tip Of The Iceberg?, Jody L. Madeira, Steven R. Lindheim Md, Mark P. Trolice

Articles by Maurer Faculty

ART errors are fortunately a rare occurrence. but humans are fallible and mistakes are inevitable. As social media sensationalizes these events, we, as infertility specialists, must be vigilant in reviewing existing risk management systems and consider other options to minimize/eliminate these events. ART programs should work to emphasize honesty and transparency to improve quality of care.

Empowering The Minority Healthcare Worker Amidst Racial Patient Bias & Covid-19, Rachel Tran

Center for Health Law Policy and Bioethics

While the discussion surrounding implicit physician bias has become more prevalent, patient bias is often overlooked. For decades, the United States’ healthcare system has normalized accommodation of patients’ racially biased requests, providing little to no support for minority healthcare workers. This paper presents social, ethical, and legal arguments for the creation of effective patient bias policies while challenging traditional barriers to implementation. It also advances a guideline of recommendations for healthcare institutions, civil rights organizations, and governments to draw from. These recommendations include the right to turn away patients who repeatedly discriminate against healthcare professionals.

Covid-19 Should Not Create A New Class Of Criminals, Alaina Lynch

Center for Health Law Policy and Bioethics

This paper offers a critique of the punitive response to COVID-19 in the United States and argues that punitive resources must be redistributed. Specifically, this paper suggests that no criminal charges be brought related to the novel disease transmission because policing and arrests related to COVID-19 exposure crimes are counterproductive. Defunding these punitive efforts and reallocating funds towards virus containment, the spread of factual information about disease transmission, vaccine research, the delivery of resources to communities in need, and support for victims of crimes in alternative ways is a more effective strategy to support public health and safety. To make …

Mail-Voting During Covid-19: Protecting Public Health And Expanding Voting Accessibility, Emily Kawahara

Center for Health Law Policy and Bioethics

The 2020 presidential election will be held during the COVID-19 public health crisis. In response to the COVID-19 situation, there is an immediate need to universalize mail-voting. However, President Donald Trump consistently downplays COVID-19 and asserts that mail- voting causes voter fraud and favors the Democratic Party. This Article examines modifications made in prior elections held during or in the wake of crises. Though these modifications are not applicable for the COVID-19 pandemic, they provide two important distinctions: crisis-specific measures should prioritize protecting public health and, if there is an opportunity to preserve the right to vote through election modification, …