Law Commons^™

Pandemic Influenza: Ethics, Law, And The Public's Health, Lawrence O. Gostin, Benjamin E. Berkman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Highly pathogenic Influenza (HPAI) has captured the close attention of policy makers who regard pandemic influenza as a national security threat. Although the prevalence is currently very low, recent evidence that the 1918 pandemic was caused by an avian influenza virus lends credence to the theory that current outbreaks could have pandemic potential. If the threat becomes a reality, massive loss of life and economic disruption would ensue. Therapeutic countermeasures (e.g., vaccines and antiviral medications) and public health interventions (e.g., infection control, social separation, and quarantine) form the two principal strategies for prevention and response, both of which present formidable …

Law As A Tool To Facilitate Healthier Lifestyles And Prevent Obesity, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Public health agencies face considerable challenges trying to prevent overweight and obesity in society, primarily because a person's own behavior is often the root cause of the disease. Individuals make personal choices about their diet, exercise, and lifestyle, so disease is often thought of as a matter of personal, not governmental, responsibility. This Commentary shows how law can be used as a tool to prevent overweight and obesity (see Table).

The tools discussed in this article include:

- Disclosure - e.g., labels and consumer information

- Tort liability - e.g., inadequate disclosure of risks, misleading advertisements, and targeting children

- …

The Patient, The Doctor, The Fetus, And The Court-Compelled Cesarean: Why Courts Should Address The Question Through A Bioethical Lens, Thomas Williams

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Court-ordered Cesarean sections are a relatively recent phenomenon in the intersection of law and medicine. Existing jurisprudence utilizes a legal balancing test when addressing conflicts that arise between physicians and patients regarding obstetrical treatment and care. The authors contend that courts' analyses lack a fundamental element - a bioethical framework. Therefore, the authors believe that in order to better assess such conflicts, courts should incorporate a bioethical framework such as the Georgetown mantra to help complement their legal analyses.

What Does Social Justice Require For The Public’S Health? Public Health Ethics And Policy Imperatives, Lawrence O. Gostin, Madison Powers

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Justice is so central to the mission of public health that it has been described as the field's core value. Our account of justice stresses the fair disbursement of common advantages and sharing of common burdens. It captures the twin moral impulses that animate public health: to advance human well-being by improving health and to do so particularly by focusing on the needs of the most disadvantaged. This commentary explores how social justice sheds light on major ongoing controversies in the field, and it provides examples of the kinds of policies that public health agencies guided by a robust conception …

Medical Error Reporting: Professional Tensions Between Confidentiality & Liability, Wendy K. Mariner, Frances H. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

Improving patient safety depends on a sophisticated understanding of what can jeopardize it. Reports of adverse patient events and "near misses" constitute valuable information that can foster that understanding. Knowing what has gone wrong in the past facilitates the search for systems improvements, which can prevent recurrence. Unfortunately, providers have been generally unenthusiastic about reporting medical error, whether from a sense of shame, from a fear of liability and institutional sanctions, or from anxiety about reputation and relationships with peers. This Issue Brief lays out the factors that may affect reporting, and explores the limited evidence about whether providers' confidentiality …

The Role Of Law In Russian Health Reform: Report To The United States Agency For International Development, Wendy K. Mariner, Frank G. Feeley

Faculty Scholarship

True reform necessarily entails new law. In the newly independent Russian Federation, law has played a formative role in efforts to reform the health care system. Both historically and structurally, the health care system in Russia is more dependent on legal authorization than that in most Western industrialized countries. Reforms that providers might institute independently elsewhere are not likely to happen in Russia without specific laws authorizing them. Policy makers often formulate the substance of policy in the context of developing legislation, instead of drafting legislation to codify settled policy decisions. Thus, identifying and developing suitable laws has become an …