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Full-Text Articles in Law

Against The ‘Safety Net’, Matthew Lawrence Feb 2020

Against The ‘Safety Net’, Matthew Lawrence

Matthew B. Lawrence

Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan originated the ‘safety net’ conception of United States health and welfare laws in the late 1970s and early 1980s, defending proposed cuts to New Deal and Great Society programs by asserting that such cuts would not take away the “social safety net of programs” for those with “true need.” Legal scholars have adopted their metaphor widely and uncritically. This Essay deconstructs the ‘safety net’ metaphor and counsels against its use in understanding health and welfare laws. The metaphor is descriptively confusing because it means different things to different audiences. Some understand the ‘safety net’ as …


Disappropriation, Matthew Lawrence Dec 2019

Disappropriation, Matthew Lawrence

Matthew B. Lawrence

In recent years Congress has repeatedly failed to appropriate funds necessary to honor legal commitments (aka entitlements) that are themselves enacted in permanent law. The Appropriations Clause has forced the government to defy legislative command and break such commitments, with destructive results for recipients and the rule of law. This Article is the first to address this poorly-understood phenomenon, which it labels a form of “disappropriation.” 

The Article theorizes recent high-profile disappropriations as one probabilistic consequence of Congress’s decision to create permanent legislative payment commitments that the government cannot honor without periodic, temporary appropriations. Such partially-temporary programs include Medicaid and …


Deputizing Family: Loved Ones As A Regulatory Tool In The 'Drug War' And Beyond, Matthew Lawrence Dec 2018

Deputizing Family: Loved Ones As A Regulatory Tool In The 'Drug War' And Beyond, Matthew Lawrence

Matthew B. Lawrence

Many laws use family members as a regulatory tool to influence the decisions or behavior of their loved ones, i.e., they deputize family. Involuntary treatment laws for substance use disorder are a clear example; such laws empower family members to use information shared by their loved ones to petition to force their loved ones into treatment without consent. Whether such deputization is helpful or harmful for a patient’s health is a crucial and dubious question discussed in existing literature, but use of family members as a regulatory tool implicates important considerations beyond direct medical impacts that have not been as …


The Finney County, Kansas Community Assessment Process: Fact Book, Debra J. Bolton Phd, Shannon L. Dick M.S. Jan 2017

The Finney County, Kansas Community Assessment Process: Fact Book, Debra J. Bolton Phd, Shannon L. Dick M.S.

Dr. Debra Bolton

This multi-lingual/multi-cultural study was called, Community Assets Processt, by the groups that “commissioned” it: Finnup Foundation, Finney County K-State Research & Extension, Western Kansas Community Foundation, Finney County United Way, Finney County Health Department, United Methodist Community Health Center (UMMAM), Center for Children and Families, Garden City Recreation Commission, and the Garden City Cultural Relations Board, because we intend for this to be an ongoing discussion. An objective, for those promoting the study, was to connect foundation, state, and federal funding with activities or services that addressed the true needs of people living in Finney County. The group was looking …


3d Printing And Healthcare: Will Laws, Lawyers, And Companies Stand In The Way Of Patient Care?, Evan R. Youngstrom Apr 2016

3d Printing And Healthcare: Will Laws, Lawyers, And Companies Stand In The Way Of Patient Care?, Evan R. Youngstrom

Evan R. Youngstrom

Today, our society is on a precipice of significant advancement in healthcare because 3D printing will usher in the next generation of medicine. The next generation will be driven by customization, which will allow doctors to replace limbs and individualize drugs. However, the next generation will be without large pharmaceutical companies and their justifications for strong intellectual property rights. However, the current patent system (which is underpinned by a social tradeoff made from property incentives) is not flexible enough to cope with 3D printing’s rapid development. Very soon, the social tradeoff will no longer benefit society, so it must be …


From Patient Rights To Health Justice.Pdf, Lindsay Wiley Dec 2015

From Patient Rights To Health Justice.Pdf, Lindsay Wiley

Lindsay Wiley

Models emphasizing professional autonomy, patient rights, market power, and health consumerism are no longer adequate to address the increasingly social, collective nature of health law institutions, instruments, and norms. What is needed is a new model that expressly recognizes the public-alongside the patient, the provider, and the payer-as an important stakeholder and active participant in decisions about medical treatment, health care coverage, and allocation of scarce resources. In a previous article, the author looked to the environmental justice, reproductive justice, and food justice movements for inspiration in developing a "health justice" approach to eliminating social disparities in health. This Article …


How Did You Know That? Protecting Privacy Interests Of Research Participants Via Certificates Of Confidentiality, Jonathan S. Miller Aug 2015

How Did You Know That? Protecting Privacy Interests Of Research Participants Via Certificates Of Confidentiality, Jonathan S. Miller

Jonathan S Miller

Answering novel medical hypotheses requires investigators to have robust and demographically diverse biospecimens and genetic data to facilitate their research. Doing so however also requires adequate participation by human subjects willing to consent to the donation and use of their biospecimens and genetic data for future unforeseen research. Although advances in scientific methodologies and technologies to understand the etiology of diseases and facilitate the development of improved therapeutics are critical to enhancing the common good; these advances pose informational risks associated with the re-identification of individuals. The conundrum exists about how to mitigate the privacy concerns associated with potential re-identification …


Health Care Reform And Affordable: The Graduate Student's Need For Further Reform, Angela N. Nicewonder Jul 2015

Health Care Reform And Affordable: The Graduate Student's Need For Further Reform, Angela N. Nicewonder

Angela N Nicewonder

No abstract provided.


A Jurisprudential Analysis Of Government Intervention And Prenatal Drug Abuse, Susan Saab Fortney Jul 2015

A Jurisprudential Analysis Of Government Intervention And Prenatal Drug Abuse, Susan Saab Fortney

Susan S. Fortney

This article addresses the serious public health problem of substance abuse among pregnant women. Part I of this article introduces the national problem of prenatal drug abuse. Part II discuses the appropriateness of government intervention. The article explains the medical consequences of prenatal drug abuse, and then, describes the justification of government intervention. The article details both existing criminal law and new legislation regarding prenatal drug abuse. Part III addresses constitutional concerns and the conflict between a woman’s right on the one hand and the state interest and “fetal rights” on the other. Part IV considers the moral and legal …


A Traumatic Brain Injury Is A Headache In Both Medical And Legal Circles, Samuel D. Hodge Jr. Feb 2015

A Traumatic Brain Injury Is A Headache In Both Medical And Legal Circles, Samuel D. Hodge Jr.

Samuel D. Hodge Jr.

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the most feared consequence of head trauma. The reason is simple - the brain is who we are, our essence, including our memories of past times, how we respond to the environment with its stresses and challenges, and how we dream and plan for the future. A TBI has become one of the hottest and most controversial areas in personal injury litigation. More and more suits are being filed asserting claims for such problems and it is the signature injury of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Much publicity has also been generated about the …


The Insurance Aspects Of Damages, Robert H. Jerry Ii, Douglas R. Richmond Nov 2014

The Insurance Aspects Of Damages, Robert H. Jerry Ii, Douglas R. Richmond

Robert H. Jerry II

"[I]t is difficult ... to imagine an event or transaction that does not involve insurance in some way." So it is with the most salient event in the lives of Tony and Donna Sabia, whose son Tony John Sabia, or "Little Tony," was born with profound disabilities. In the final analysis, the ability of Tony and Donna to pay for the future medical care and living expenses needed by their son depends on whether they can reach the liability insurance coverage possessed by the health care providers who attended Donna and Little Tony at the time of his birth. It …


Ivf And The Law: How Legal And Regulatory Neglect Compromised A Medical Breakthrough, Steve Calandrillo Feb 2014

Ivf And The Law: How Legal And Regulatory Neglect Compromised A Medical Breakthrough, Steve Calandrillo

Steve P. Calandrillo

The rise of assisted reproductive technology like in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a method of human reproduction represents a remarkable medical achievement. It has allowed millions of infertile and same-sex couples to have children who were previously only the subject of their unrequited dreams. Live births and success rates have increased dramatically in the past decade, so much so that many fertility clinics “guarantee” a baby to clients who sign up. But with success comes inevitable downsides. Everyone knows that the price tag is steep, but given the demand, that obstacle seems to deter relatively few determined individuals. More insidious …


Invalid Testimony: Disability And Voice In The Criminal Procedure (Co-Authored With Osnat Ein-Dor) (Hebrew), Sagit Mor Jan 2014

Invalid Testimony: Disability And Voice In The Criminal Procedure (Co-Authored With Osnat Ein-Dor) (Hebrew), Sagit Mor

Sagit Mor

This Article discuses the sociolegal reality that people with developmental and mental disabilities experience in their interaction with the criminal justice system and the challenges that the criminal system faces when it comes to deal with a case which involves a disabled person. It maintains that the barriers that disabled people face in criminal proceedings do not exist only in pre-trial stages, but also during the trial itself, since courts, too, are impacted by exclusionary legal rules and by cognitive schemas that express negative stereotypes. In 2005 a new law was introduced in Israel: Investigation and Testimony Proceedings (Accommodations for …


Blood Transfusions, Jehovah’S Witnesses, And The American Patients’ Rights Movement, Charles H. Baron Aug 2013

Blood Transfusions, Jehovah’S Witnesses, And The American Patients’ Rights Movement, Charles H. Baron

Charles H. Baron

The litigation to protect Jehovah’s Witnesses from unwanted blood transfusions, which their theology considers a violation of the biblical prohibition against drinking blood, has produced important changes in both the right to refuse treatment and in the preferred treatment methods of all patients. This article traces the evolution of the rights of competent medical patients in the United States to refuse medical treatment. It also discusses the impact this litigation has had on the medical community’s realization that blood transfusions were neither as safe nor as medically necessary as medical culture posited.


Throwing Dirt On Doctor Frankenstein's Grave: Accesss To Experimental Treatments At The End Of Life, Michael J. Malinowski Jul 2013

Throwing Dirt On Doctor Frankenstein's Grave: Accesss To Experimental Treatments At The End Of Life, Michael J. Malinowski

Michael J. Malinowski

Abstract

All U.S. federal research funding triggers regulations to protect human subjects known as the Common Rule, a collaborative government effort that spans seventeen federal agencies. The Department of Health and Human Services has been in the process of re-evaluating the Common Rule comprehensively after decades of application and in response to the jolting advancement of biopharmaceutical science. The Common Rule designates specific groups as “vulnerable populations”—pregnant women, fetuses, children, prisoners, and those with serious mental comprehension challenges—and imposes heightened protections of them. This article addresses a question at the cornerstone of regulations to protect human subjects as biopharmaceutical research …


Throwing Dirt On Doctor Frankenstein’S Grave: Access To Experimental Treatments At The End Of Life, Michael J. Malinowski Jul 2013

Throwing Dirt On Doctor Frankenstein’S Grave: Access To Experimental Treatments At The End Of Life, Michael J. Malinowski

Michael J. Malinowski

All U.S. federal research funding triggers regulations to protect human subjects known as the Common Rule, a collaborative government effort that spans seventeen federal agencies. The Department of Health and Human Services has been in the process of re-evaluating the Common Rule comprehensively after decades of application and in response to the jolting advancement of biopharmaceutical science. The Common Rule designates specific groups as “vulnerable populations”—pregnant women, fetuses, children, prisoners, and those with serious mental comprehension challenges—and imposes heightened protections of them. This article addresses a question at the cornerstone of regulations to protect human subjects as biopharmaceutical research and …


Medical Malpractice Reform Measures And Their Effects, Robert Leflar Jun 2013

Medical Malpractice Reform Measures And Their Effects, Robert Leflar

Robert B Leflar

New rules and methods for medical injury dispute resolution have been launched in New Hampshire and New York, and demonstration projects are underway elsewhere. This article describes major medical malpractice reforms undertaken and proposed in recent years. Reforms are classified as (1) liability-limiting initiatives favoring health-care providers; (2) procedural innovations promoted as improving dispute resolution processes, such as patient compensation funds, “sorry” laws, disclosure and early offer laws, health courts, and safe harbor laws; and (3) major conceptual reforms to move liability away from physicians to hospitals or administrative no-fault compensation systems. Empirical evidence about the practical effects of already-implemented …


"Unnatural Deaths," Criminal Sanctions, And Medical Quality Improvement In Japan, Robert B. Leflar Apr 2013

"Unnatural Deaths," Criminal Sanctions, And Medical Quality Improvement In Japan, Robert B. Leflar

Robert B Leflar

A worldwide awakening to the high incidence of preventable harm resulting from medical care, combined with pressure on hospitals and physicians from liability litigation, has turned international attention to the need for better structures to resolve medical disputes in a way that promotes medical safety and honesty toward patients. The civil justice system in the United States, in particular, is criticized as inefficient, arbitrary, and sometimes punitive. It is charged with undermining sound medical care by encouraging wasteful expenditures through defensive medicine; by driving information about medical mistakes underground where it escapes analysis, undercutting quality improvement efforts; and by forcing …


From Absence To Presence: A Critique Of Intersex Surgeries (Co-Authored With Maayan Sudai And Or Shai) (Hebrew), Sagit Mor Jan 2013

From Absence To Presence: A Critique Of Intersex Surgeries (Co-Authored With Maayan Sudai And Or Shai) (Hebrew), Sagit Mor

Sagit Mor

This is the first Article in Israeli legal scholarship that addresses the rights of intersex persons, who were born with "a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seemto fit the typical definitions of female or male" (INSA). The common practice in most Western countries today is to operate intersex infants in order to assign them to one of the “conventional” sexes: either male or female. The Article lays the foundations for an intersex critique of law that supports the rights of intersex persons and lays out the ground for the critique of the current legal arrangement and the design of …


Lessons From Personhood’S Defeat: Abortion Restrictions And Side Effects On Women’S Health, Maya Manian Dec 2012

Lessons From Personhood’S Defeat: Abortion Restrictions And Side Effects On Women’S Health, Maya Manian

Maya Manian

State personhood laws pose a puzzle. These laws would establish fertilized eggs as persons and, by doing so, would ban all abortions. Many states have consistently supported laws restricting abortion care. Yet, thus far no personhood laws have passed. Why? This Article offers a possible explanation and draws lessons from that explanation for understanding and resisting abortion restrictions more broadly. I suggest that voters’ recognition of the implications of personhood legislation for health issues other than abortion may have led to personhood’s defeat. In other words, opponents of personhood proposals appear to have successfully reconnected abortion to pregnancy care, contraception, …


A Right To Active Ageing For All? On The Status Of The Elderly In Social Services And Health Care, Titti Mattsson Dec 2012

A Right To Active Ageing For All? On The Status Of The Elderly In Social Services And Health Care, Titti Mattsson

Titti Mattsson

No abstract provided.


Reform Of The United States Health Care System: An Overview, Robert B. Leflar Dec 2012

Reform Of The United States Health Care System: An Overview, Robert B. Leflar

Robert B Leflar

This essay, written for readers unfamiliar with the details of American health law and policy, portrays the essential features of the battle for health reform in the United States and of the law that survived the battle: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The essay summarizes key aspects of the U.S. health care system and how it compares in terms of costs and results with other advanced nations’ systems. The political and legal conflicts leading up to and following PPACA’s enactment are described. The major features of the law, attempting to address problems of access to health care, …


Reform Of The United States Health Care System: An Overview, Robert B. Leflar Dec 2012

Reform Of The United States Health Care System: An Overview, Robert B. Leflar

Robert B Leflar

This essay, written for readers unfamiliar with the details of American health law and policy, portrays the essential features of the battle for health reform in the United States and of the law that survived the battle: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The essay summarizes key aspects of the U.S. health care system and how it compares in terms of costs and results with other advanced nations’systems. The political and legal conflicts leading up to and following PPACA’s enactment are described. The major features of the law, attempting to address problems of access to health care, quality, …


Caremark's Irrelevance, Mercer E. Bullard Aug 2012

Caremark's Irrelevance, Mercer E. Bullard

Mercer E Bullard

In re Caremark Int’l Inc. Derivative Litig. is commonly held out as the iconic corporate law case on liability for a failure of legal compliance, but the true source of corporate law as to legal compliance is the higher standard established by other sources of law. The expected cost of liability, both criminal and civil, for violations of federal healthcare regulations, for example, is a far stronger determinant of corporate compliance systems than potential liability under Caremark. Other areas of industry-specific regulation, such as for financial services, telecommunications and energy, similarly play a greater role than state corporate law in …


"How's My Doctoring?" Patient Feedback's Role In Physician Assessment, Ann Marie Marciarille Jan 2012

"How's My Doctoring?" Patient Feedback's Role In Physician Assessment, Ann Marie Marciarille

Ann Marie Marciarille

A society-wide consumer revolution is underway with the rise of online user-generated review websites such as Yelp, Angie’s List, and Zagat. Service provider reviews are now available with an intensity and scope that attracts increasing numbers of reviewers and readers. Health care providers are not exempt from this new consumer generated scrutiny though they have arrived relatively late to the party and as somewhat unwilling guests.

The thesis of this article is that online patient feedback on physicians is relevant and valuable even though it is also uncomfortable for health care providers. This is because the modern physician-patient relationship is …


Relational Malpractice, Sagit Mor, Orna Rabinovich-Einy Jan 2012

Relational Malpractice, Sagit Mor, Orna Rabinovich-Einy

Sagit Mor

Legal scholarship in recent decades has devoted considerable attention to the "malpractice crisis." Surprisingly, however, the vast majority of this literature has overlooked a fundamental aspect of the problem: the deterioration of the doctor-patient relationship. So far, mainstream legal writing on malpractice has tended to frame the situation as either an insurance crisis or a litigation crisis. Although others have acknowledged that the current malpractice regime has negatively affected the doctor patient relationship, they have narrowly framed the scope of the problem, focusing on the aftermath of a medical error. We argue that contemporary doctor-patient interactions often resemble a battle …


Equal Rights For Disabled People In Employment Law – A Critical Assessment (Hebrew), Sagit Mor Jan 2012

Equal Rights For Disabled People In Employment Law – A Critical Assessment (Hebrew), Sagit Mor

Sagit Mor

This article presents a pioneering research project, which seeks to explore whether and to what extent the Equal Rights for People with Disability Law, 1998, had an impact on courts' rulings on matters related to disability employment discrimination. In particular, it seeks to examine (1) whether a consistent and instructive legal doctrine has evolved, one that reflects the principles that guided the framers of the legislation, and (2) whether the legal discourse on disability has changed. The article presents the emerging theory of disability legal studies and its unique and original contribution to legal scholarship. Disability legal studies seeks to …


The Law Of Medical Misadventure In Japan, Robert B. Leflar Dec 2011

The Law Of Medical Misadventure In Japan, Robert B. Leflar

Robert B Leflar

This paper offers a comprehensive overview of Japanese law and practice relating to iatrogenic (medically-caused) injury, with comparisons to other nations’ medical law systems. The paper addresses criminal sanctions for Japanese physicians’ negligent and illegal acts; civil law principles of substantive law and related issues of procedure, practice, and liability insurance; and administrative measures including health ministry programs aimed at expanding and improving the quality of peer review within Japanese medicine, and a recently implemented no-fault compensation system for birth-related injuries. Among the paper’s findings are these. Criminal and civil actions increased rapidly after highly publicized medical error events at …


The Health Care Quality Improvement Act Of 1986 Meets The Era Of Health Care Reform: Continuing Themes And Common Threads, Michele L. Mekel Dec 2011

The Health Care Quality Improvement Act Of 1986 Meets The Era Of Health Care Reform: Continuing Themes And Common Threads, Michele L. Mekel

Michele L Mekel

The articles the 13th Annual Southern Illinois Healthcare/Southern Illinois University Health Policy Institute symposium issue of The Journal of Legal Medicine plait the cords connecting 1986’s HCQIA and 2011’s PPACA. Such a historically contextual approach to viewing key themes and how they are stitched, over time, into the fabric of the nation’s health law and policy leads to a much more robust understanding not only of where U.S. health law and policy has come from—and why—but also aids in developing informed and integrated health law and policy moving forward.


Perfectly Legal To Mandate The Purchase Of Insurance, Alan E. Garfield Nov 2011

Perfectly Legal To Mandate The Purchase Of Insurance, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.