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Changing Positions And Entrenched Polemics: A Brief History Of The Association To Benefit Children’S View On Pediatric Hiv Testing, Counseling, And Care, Colin Crawford
Fordham Urban Law Journal
In this Article, the author documents the trajectory of the Association to Benefit Children’s approach to pediatric HIV testing. Part I focuses on ABC’s lawsuit on behalf of children with HIV in New York and documents the settlement process, which resulted in allowing mothers to know the results of the HIV test results. Next, the author reflects on why the debate became as acrimonious as it did, and how that impeded the resolution of a satisfactory result for the widest number of people. Lastly, the author offers several lessons learned from the controversy surrounding the debate. Specifically, the debate over …
Physician-Assisted Suicide: An Anthropological Perspective, Cheryl Mwaria
Physician-Assisted Suicide: An Anthropological Perspective, Cheryl Mwaria
Fordham Urban Law Journal
In considering physician-assisted suicide, the real challenge lies in understanding the nature of culture itself. Missing from the debate is a discussion of the social consequences of hidden expectations and obligations with respect to access to health care, allocation of resources, terminal and chronic illness, disability, difference, suffering, and the nature of death itself. Part I explores the hidden dimensions of culture that operate at the level of the unconscious. In order to examine the ways in which our cultural expectations are likely to change with the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and active euthanasia it is imperative that we consider …
Community-Based Health Care: A Legal And Policy Analysis , Lewis D. Solomon, Tricia Asaro
Community-Based Health Care: A Legal And Policy Analysis , Lewis D. Solomon, Tricia Asaro
Fordham Urban Law Journal
While Washington has been unable to lead the way in significant health care reform, the health care system has begun to transform itself in terms of curbing skyrocketing health care costs, dealing with the more than forty million Americans who lack health care coverage, and the problems plaguing the Medicare and Medicaid systems. The search has begun for a health care model that ensures quality care to a wide population in a cost-efficient manner. This article explores how the U.S. Health care system currently functions, examines several innovative models, and suggests ways in which a decentralized, community-based approach to health …
Foreword: Urban Bioethics, Elizabeth B. Cooper, Benjamin C. Zipursky
Foreword: Urban Bioethics, Elizabeth B. Cooper, Benjamin C. Zipursky
Fordham Urban Law Journal
On February 26, 1997, the Fordham University School of Law hosted the Sixth Annual Stein Center Symposium on Contemporary Urban Challenges, entitled "Urban Bioethics: A Symposium on Health Care, Poverty, and Autonomy." The Foreword introduces Articles in this Symposium issue and discusses two central themes of the various Articles: socioeconomic framing of bioethical and healthcare issues, and the challenge of the moral consensus.
Profits, Poverty, And Health Care: An Examination Of The Ethical Base Of Economics, Robert J, Brent
Profits, Poverty, And Health Care: An Examination Of The Ethical Base Of Economics, Robert J, Brent
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Part I of this Article explains the dual analysis of ethics (ethical base of markets as a process and an end result) as it relates to profits and market efficiency. In particular, the author questions whether individuals are able to judge their own welfare and, if so, do individuals accept that they are the best judge. Part II explains the ethics of profit and its relation to poverty. Specifically, the author describes the response to poverty in the context of health care by the consumer and producer. The author concludes by noting that the need for efficiency is in health …
Towards A Competitive Health Care System, Robert L. Hubbard
Towards A Competitive Health Care System, Robert L. Hubbard
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The antitrust laws constitute the foundation and fundamental strength of the U.S. democratic free enterprise system. Competition enhances both the democratic and economic opportunities, including in the healthcare markets. Although healthcare markets have significant market imperfections, a competitive system is more appropriate for the healthcare markets because it delivers choice among alternatives that regulation does not. Thus, the question to ask in the healthcare system is what can be done to make competition work better.
The Public Hospital, Lewis R. Goldfrank, M.D.
The Public Hospital, Lewis R. Goldfrank, M.D.
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The author traces the development of public and private hospitals. In particular, the Article looks at the changing role of the hospital and the development of federal legislation. Next, the author reviews the functions of the public hospital, which include providing care for the poor, prisoners, psychiatric patients, trauma patients, and addicts. A public hospital also has the role of providing emergency and trauma care, while serving a role in disaster management and as the training grounds for the next generation of medical professionals. The closure of public hospitals has become frequent and it does not appear that the current …
Mandatory Testing Of Pregnant Women And Newborns: Hiv, Drug Use, And Welfare Policy, Elizabeth B. Cooper
Mandatory Testing Of Pregnant Women And Newborns: Hiv, Drug Use, And Welfare Policy, Elizabeth B. Cooper
Fordham Urban Law Journal
In this Introduction, the author discusses how the collection of essays provide insightful analysis of biological, legal, and public health issues surrounding mandatory testing of pregnant women and infants for HIV. As background, beginning February 1, 1997, New York ordered that every newborn in the state be tested for HIV-antibodies. In addition, the results are disclosed to the delivering mother, her physician, and her child’s physician, thus raising difficult ethical and policy questions for the Symposium panel.
Mandatory Testing Of Pregnant Women And Newborns: Hiv, Drug Use, And Welfare Policy, Wendy Chavkin, Deborah Elman, Paul H. Wise
Mandatory Testing Of Pregnant Women And Newborns: Hiv, Drug Use, And Welfare Policy, Wendy Chavkin, Deborah Elman, Paul H. Wise
Fordham Urban Law Journal
An emerging strand of thought portrays pregnant women with drug addiction and HIV infection as having a willful hostility towards their fetus. As a result, pregnant mothers with HIV or addictions are confronted with decreased funding for services and increased sanctions for positive toxicology tests. The rhetoric of blame towards “deviant” mothers has escalated to embrace poor mothers in general. However, in order to support the babies, their mothers must be supported as well.
The "Baby Aids" Bill, Nettie Mayersohn
The "Baby Aids" Bill, Nettie Mayersohn
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Assemblywoman Mayersohn first explains the reasons behind her support for the so-called “Baby AIDS” bill; namely, that over one thousand babies in New York State tested positive for AIDS or HIV antibodies every year but medical professions were not allowed to reveal the results to anyone, including the mother. After the introduction of the bill, the author details how she received criticism and opposition from activist organizations that she had previously supported. In conclusion, the “Baby AIDS” bill is a success because it no longer treated infected infants as some sort of statistical tool and ensures the infants receive the …
Bioethical Consideration Of Maternal-Fetal Issues, Linda Farber Post
Bioethical Consideration Of Maternal-Fetal Issues, Linda Farber Post
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The relationship between a pregnant woman and her fetus is unlike any other in law, medicine, or ethics. This Article examines the complexity of the maternal-fetal conflict, focusing on the interests of the woman and the sometimes conflicting interests of her fetus. Part I discusses the typical analytical background of the conflict, explaining the various ethical principles, rights, and obligations involved such as autonomy, beneficence and nonmaleficence, and justice. Part II explores the various choices made by the pregnant woman, as well as the state’s attempts to regulate those choices on behalf of the fetus. This Article concludes that, while …
Physician-Assisted Suicide: Rights And Risks To Vulnerable Communities, Benjamin C. Zipursky
Physician-Assisted Suicide: Rights And Risks To Vulnerable Communities, Benjamin C. Zipursky
Fordham Urban Law Journal
In this Introduction, the author discusses the recent Supreme Court decisions Washington v. Glucksberg and Vacco v. Quill. On one hand, several panel contributors hold the position that one should have the right to control one’s own death, which is rooted in autonomy, liberty, and equality. Scholarly voices on the other side of the debate, including four panel members, believe that the legalization of physician-assisted suicide would create intolerable risks, particularly to those in the community who are the most vulnerable: the poor, the elderly, and the mentally and physically disabled.
Mental Illness, Physical Illness, And The Legalization Of Physician-Assisted Suicide, Ellen H. Moskowitz
Mental Illness, Physical Illness, And The Legalization Of Physician-Assisted Suicide, Ellen H. Moskowitz
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This Article explores the oftentimes mistaken notion that we can realistically identify severely ill individuals seeking physician-suicide who do so willingly, knowingly, and voluntarily. Medical science and medical practice support this proposition. To date, there exists no sound clinical basis for distinguishing suicidal patients with terminal conditions from suicidal patients without terminal conditions. Thus, it is a mistake to posit a reasonably identifiable patient population od adults with terminal diagnosis who can provide informed, voluntary consent to prescription lethal drugs. In practice, the medical community has failed to indentify and treat suicidal disorders. This Article concludes that suicide, including suicide …
Is There A Right To Physician-Assisted Suicide?, J. David Bleich
Is There A Right To Physician-Assisted Suicide?, J. David Bleich
Fordham Urban Law Journal
In Part I, the author explains that it is the adjudication between the conflicting claims of individual liberty, personal autonomy and self-determination versus the preservation of life as a societal value that is at the core of the issue posed by physician-assisted suicide. In Part II, author makes the case against suicide, noting that liberty is not absolute and the state retains powers of sovereignty to curtail an individual’s liberty in the face of a countervailing state interest. In Part III, the author discusses the relevant case law relating to the withdrawal of medical treatment. Part IV concludes with a …
Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Common Law Roadmap For State Courts, Alan Meisel
Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Common Law Roadmap For State Courts, Alan Meisel
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Part I examines the development of the law legalizing passively hastening death and how this development relied significantly on distinguishing passively hastening death from actively hastening death. Part II subjects the arguments used to legitimate passively hastening death to a traditional criminal law analysis and demonstrates their weaknesses which were simple to conceal when there was little enthusiasm for, and discussion of, the legalization of actively hastening death. The central role of consent in legitimating passively hastening death is analyzed in Part III. Although passively hastening death technically satisfies all of the elements of the crimes of assisted suicide and …
Physician-Assisted Suicide: Three Crucial Distinctions, Norton Spritz
Physician-Assisted Suicide: Three Crucial Distinctions, Norton Spritz
Fordham Urban Law Journal
In Part I discusses whether there is a sustainable distinction between withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining measures and physician-assisted suicide. By segregating those who choose to end their lives into two groups, albeit with considerable overlap, the state can exert its general interest in preserving life and preventing suicide where it has the greatest interest and justification for doing so. In Part II, the author explores whether we can maintain a distinction between the right of a patient to have his or her physician assist in suicide and a direct role of the physician in various forms of euthanasia. Next, the …
Constitutional Tragedy In Dying: Responses To Some Common Arguments Against The Constitutional Right To Die, James E. Flemming
Constitutional Tragedy In Dying: Responses To Some Common Arguments Against The Constitutional Right To Die, James E. Flemming
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The author first explains that he will argue for the constitutional right to die, including the right of terminally ill persons to physician-assisted suicide. It would be a constitutional tragedy otherwise because it would entail that the Constitutional sanctions a horrible form of tyranny and that the Constitution allows citizens to author their own tragic endings. In the final part of the essay, the author responds to some common arguments against the constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide. While there may be some merits to the opposition arguments, none provides a good constitutional argument against recognizing a right to die. In …
Telemedicine Today And Tomorrow: Why "Virtual" Privacy Is Not Enough, Christina M. Rackett
Telemedicine Today And Tomorrow: Why "Virtual" Privacy Is Not Enough, Christina M. Rackett
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This Note demonstrates the need for federal telemedicine legislation that provides uniform confidentiality protection for all telemedicine patients. Part I details the use of telemedicine and outlines the link between telemedicine and privacy issues. Part II discusses current federal and state privacy law, emphasizing the laws that protect medical information. Part III argues that federal telemedicine legislation is necessary to safeguard the confidentiality of patients' medical records and proposes a uniform law that protects the privacy of telemedicine patients in every state. This Note concludes that without federal legislation, telemedicine will wither, along with isolated patients' hopes of one day …