Digital Commons Network^™

Pay No Attention To That Man Behind The Curtain: Concealment, Revelation, And The Question Of Food Safety, Denis W. Stearns

Seattle University Law Review

Despite knowledge that commerce in food is a profit-driven enterprise, the public has consistently put great faith in the wholesomeness and safety of the food being purchased. To some extent, such faith is necessary, even if not always justified. In making the decision to put a bite of food in one’s own mouth, or the mouth of a friend or family member, a form of faith or trust must accompany the act of eating. For who would knowingly eat food suspected to be unsafe? But that is precisely what millions of people do every year, with a great many of …

Obama, The Fourteenth Amendment, And The Drug War, Martin D. Carcieri

Akron Law Review

This article is written to help clarify the full range of understanding Obama would bring to a second term.

Specifically, I defend two related, contested theses. My core thesis, to which this article is primarily devoted, is a jurisprudential claim: contrary to state and lower federal court rulings, marijuana prohibition is subject to strict judicial scrutiny under leading relevant U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence. I support this thesis primarily by showing that under the Fourteenth Amendment, bodily autonomy—i.e., the control over the borders and contents of one’s body burdened by laws like marijuana prohibition—is a fundamental right, and that the Court …

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter, Summer 2015

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Ebola, Quarantine, And Flawed Cdc Policy, Robert Gatter

University of Miami Business Law Review

The CDC’s Interim Guidance for Monitoring and Movements of Persons with Potential Ebola Virus Exposure is deeply flawed because it disregards the science of Ebola transmission. It recommends that officials quarantine individuals exposed to the virus but who do not have any symptoms of illness, ignoring the fact that only those with Ebola symptoms can communicate the virus to others. Consequently, any quarantine order based on the Guidelines is surely unconstitutional and illegal under most states’ public health statutes—as exemplified by the State of Maine’s failed petition to quarantine Nurse Kaci Hickox in October 2014. This article examines the Guidance …

Legal, Operational, And Practical Considerations For Hospitals And Health Care Providers In Responding To Communicable Diseases Following The 2014 Ebola Outbreak, Jane Jordan, Greg Measer, Asha Agrawal, James G. Hodge Jr.

University of Miami Business Law Review

This article analyzes some of the potential issues that may arise during epidemics or other public health emergencies. It specifically focuses on legal and operational preparedness experiences at Emory University during the 2014 Ebola crisis. Emory University Hospital was the first health care facility in the U.S. to treat patients diagnosed with Ebola Viral Disease (EVD). Although EVD has particularly frightening symptoms and a high mortality rate, its containment and treatment implicate similar legal, practical, and operational issues as other highly infectious and communicable diseases. These issues include laws related to: isolation and quarantine; travel restrictions; duties to treat highly …

Estelle V. Gamble In A Post-Affordable Care Act World, Hallie E. Mitnick

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

No abstract provided.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome: A Global Health Challenge, Lawrence O. Gostin, Daniel Lucey

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Beginning in May 2015, Middle-East respiratory syndrome (MERS) experienced its first publicly reported “super-spreading” event in South Korea. By mid-June, more than 120 cases and 11 deaths in South Korea had been linked to a businessman returning from travel to Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Globally more than 1200 had been infected of whom more than 450 died—a high fatality rate of 37%.

What are the most effective legal, social, and public health responses to MERS and other emerging diseases? First, the World Health Organization’s International Health Regulations (IHR) did not effectively guide the …

Who’S To Blame? Blame Attributions And Obesity-Related Law And Policy, Lindsey E. Wylie

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Obesity is a foremost public health concern that has received considerable attention. Because of this so-named “epidemic,” law-makers are challenged with implementing effective policies that the public supports. Little is known, however, about the antecedents and consequences of these policies—especially attributions of blameworthiness. Study 1 developed the Obesity Blame Attribution Scale (OBAS). Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that controllability, responsibility and dispositional blame were separate constructs and were part of a higher-order dispositional blame factor. Situational blame was a separate higher-order factor, not correlated with dispositional blame, consisting of blame toward the food industry and towards government policy. Using the OBAS, …

Newsletter Spring 2015

Newsletter

No abstract provided.

When Condoms Fail: Making Room Under The Aca Blanket For Prep Hiv Prevention, Jason Potter Burda

San Diego Law Review

Given the alarming upward trend in HIV infection rates and the downward trend in condom usage, the United States needs a new approach to HIV prevention. One such approach, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly known as “PrEP,” has the potential to significantly reduce HIV incidence. The FDA recently approved a daily dose of Truvada®—an antiretroviral drug that suppresses the virus in HIV-positive individuals—for daily use by high-risk HIV-negative individuals to prevent infection. Despite an efficacy above ninety percent and significant regulatory momentum, this pharmacological prevention modality has proven difficult to implement. This Article addresses the social, legal, and policy challenges that …

The Public Health Service, Jennifer Jenson

National Health Policy Forum

This document provides an overview of the Public Health Service (PHS) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including a brief history and discussion of the agencies and offices that constitute the PHS today. Information on the mission, key programs, and budgets of PHS agencies and offices is also included.

Law, Ethics, And Public Health In The Vaccination Debates: Politics Of The Measles Outbreak, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The measles outbreak of early 2015 is symptomatic of a larger societal problem–the growing number of parents who decide against vaccinating their children. This failure is causing the resurgence of childhood diseases once eliminated from the United States.

This article explores the legal and ethical landscape of vaccine exemptions. While all states require childhood vaccinations, they differ significantly in the types of religious and/or philosophical exemptions permitted, the rigor of the application process, and available review mechanisms. States with relaxed exemption policies disproportionately experience more outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease.

Vaccine exemptions are an illustration of the “tragedy of the commons,” …

Business Model Options For Antibiotics: Learning From Other Industries, Ella Jaczynska, Kevin Outterson, Jorge Mestre-Ferrandiz

Faculty Scholarship

As resistance to antibiotics continues to grow, there is a well-recognized misalignment between the clinical need for new antibiotics and the incentives for their development. The returns from investment in antibiotics research and development (R&D) are perceived as too small. Partly as a result, the number of large multinational companies researching antibiotics has fallen drastically in the past 20 years and few high-quality antibiotics have been developed.

In looking at the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) situation, we were aware that other industries have faced conceptually similar challenges and that they might offer helpful lessons and possible solutions that could be adapted …

Repairing The Broken Market For Antibiotic Innovation, Kevin Outterson, John H. Powers, Gregory W. Daniel, Mark B. Mcclellan

Faculty Scholarship

Multidrug-resistant bacterial diseases pose serious and growing threats to human health. While innovation is important to all areas of health research, it is uniquely important in antibiotics. Resistance destroys the fruit of prior research, making it necessary to constantly innovate to avoid falling back into a pre-antibiotic era. But investment is declining in antibiotics, driven by competition from older antibiotics, the cost and uncertainty of the development process, and limited reimbursement incentives. Good public health practices curb inappropriate antibiotic use, making return on investment challenging in payment systems based on sales volume. We assess the impact of recent initiatives to …

Health Injustice And Justice In Health: The Role Of Law And Public Policy In Generating, Perpetuating, And Responding To Racial And Ethnic Health Disparities Before And After The Affordable Care Act, Daryll C. Dykes

William Mitchell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unjust Barriers: Prenatal Care And Undocumented Immigrants, Casey Colleen Lee

Journal of Contemporary Health Law & Policy (1985-2015)

No abstract provided.

Health Justice: A Framework (And Calll To Action) For The Elimination Of Health Inequity And Social Injustice, Emily A. Benfer

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Under Containment: Preempting State Ebola Quarantine Regulations, Eang L. Ngov

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sharing The Burden Of Ebola Vaccine Related Adverse Events, Sam F. Halabi, John Monahan

Faculty Publications

Based upon past experience with other vaccines, the proposed administration of Ebola vaccines (once testing has been completed) will inevitably result in at least some adverse events that will give rise to legal liabilities of only crudely estimable magnitude at this time. Manufacturers, beneficiary governments (e.g., Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone), supporting governments (e.g. U.S., U.K.), individuals suffering adverse events, and populations benefiting from widespread vaccination against the Ebola virus all have a shared interest in recognizing, understanding, and managing potential liability as effectively as possible within the framework of a global public health response. There are multiple options available to …

Practice What You Preach: Does The National School Lunch Program Meet Nutritional Recommendations Set By Other Usda Programs?, ‘Lizabeth Disiena

Journal of Law and Health

Part II of this Note provides a historical background of the National School Lunch Program,20 specifically analyzing the purpose, implementation, and current state of the program. Part III begins by explaining why consideration of calories plays an important role in achieving proper weight management. It then concludes with a comparison between the caloric intake requirements of the National School Lunch Program,21 and the nutritional recommendations by other USDA government health initiatives,22 and non-governmental programs.23 Finally, Part IV proposes that the National School Lunch Program24 provide nutrition options for students that appropriately consider age, gender, and activity level in determination of …

The Threat Lives On: How To Exclude Expectant Mothers From Prosecution For Mere Exposure Of Hiv To Their Fetuses And Infants, Shahabudeen K. Khan

Cleveland State Law Review

There is a renewed interest in HIV/AIDS issues given that better treatment is available. The Department of Justice (DOJ), Civil Rights Division, recently published best practice guidelines to reform HIV-specific criminal laws to conform to modern science. The DOJ’s latest guidelines urge states to “reform and modernize” the laws to reflect modern science. There is a lot of unfinished work regarding the ineffectiveness and stigma associated with HIV criminal transmission laws as a whole. These laws are “no good” and counterintuitive in the fight against this unfortunate disease. There have been calls to repeal these laws in their entirety. That …

Hospital Breastfeeding Laws In The U.S.: Paternalism Or Empowerment?, Jennifer Bernstein, Lainie Rutkow

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prosecuting Women For Drug Use During Pregnancy: The Criminal Justice System Should Step Out And The Affordable Care Act Should Step Up, Erin D. Kampschmidt

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.

The Incorporation Of Health Impact Analysis Into Land Use Regulation: Using Health Impact Assessments To Promote Sustainable, Healthy Communities, Liz Darling Edmondson

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Defusing The Bug Bomb: Legal Strategies To Combat Antibiotic Resistant Infections, Andrew Geltman

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

The overuse of antibiotics has created a potential public health menace—the growth of microbial infections resistant to them. Antibiotic resistance stems from many causes that include the use of antibiotics in animal feed, medical practitioners’ over-prescription, the general public’s misuse of the drugs, and the failure to develop new antibiotics. This has led to the development of so called “super bugs” that are often immune to first line antibiotic therapies, such as penicillin, and to more powerful, broad-spectrum treatments.

The CDC considers the primary source of antibiotic resistant infections in humans to come from our overuse of antibiotics and the …

Under Containment: Preempting State Ebola Quarantine Regulations, Eang Ngov

Faculty Articles

The outbreak of Ebola in Africa and its recent emergence in America has brought to light that the ambit of state sovereignty in the face of federal policy is unsettled in the public health field. Quarantine laws have historically been recognized as an exercise of state police powers and, absent discriminatory uses, courts have afforded much deference to states when the federal government is dormant. This article explores federalism implications when federal and state sovereigns contest the purview of regulating Ebola, other epidemics, and quarantine. This article examines how the federal government can assert supremacy to regulate treatment of epidemics …

Anticipating Hiv Vaccines: Sketching An Agenda For Public Health Ethics And Policy In The United States, James M. Dubois, Amanda Hine, Michele Kennett, Kayla Kostelecky, Joseph Norris, Rachel Presti, Kathryn Raliski, Jessi Roach, Adam Ruggles

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Disability: A Comparative Approach To Medical Resource Allocation In Public Health Emergencies, Katie Hanschke, Leslie E. Wolf, Wendy F. Hensel

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

For The Love Of Drugs: Using Pharmaceutical Clinical Trials Abroad To Profit Off The Poor, Breanne M. Schuster

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Increasing Weight Of Regulation: Countries Combat The Global Obesity Epidemic, Allyn L. Taylor, Emily Whelan Parento, Laura A. Schmidt

Indiana Law Journal

Obesity is a global epidemic, exacting an enormous human and economic toll. In the absence of a comprehensive global governance strategy, states have increasingly employed a wide array of legal strategies targeting the drivers of obesity. This Article identifies recent global trends in obesity-related legislation and makes the normative case for an updated global governance strategy.

National governments have responded to the epidemic both by strengthening traditional interventions and by developing novel legislative strategies. This response consists of nine important trends: (1) strengthened and tailored tax measures; (2) broadened use of counter-advertising and health campaigns; (3) expanded food labeling; (4) …