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Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Law

Bioethics And Law In The United States: A Legal Process Perspective, Charles Baron Aug 2013

Bioethics And Law In The United States: A Legal Process Perspective, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

An analytical exposition of the law regarding a patient's "right to die" as it has developed in the United States over the last 30 years provides an exemplar overview of the variety of legal mechanisms that American legal institutions can and do bring to bear to deal with the challenges posed by new developments in medicine and the biosciences. Opposing "pro-life" and "pro-choice" ideological and political forces have been channeled through the federal and state legislative, judicial, and executive branches, where the various legal actors have developed legal principles that so far provide patients with a right to refuse any …


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.


Competency And Common Law: Why And How Decision-Making Capacity Criteria Should Be Drawn From The Capacity-Determination Process, Charles Baron Aug 2013

Competency And Common Law: Why And How Decision-Making Capacity Criteria Should Be Drawn From The Capacity-Determination Process, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

Determining competence to request physician-assisted suicide should be no more difficult than determining competence to refuse life-prolonging treatment. In both cases, criteria and procedures should be developed out of the process of actually making capacity determinations; they should not be promulgated a priori. Because patient demeanor plays a critical role in capacity determinations, it should be made part of the record of such determinations through greater use of video- and audiotapes.


Live Organ And Tissue Transplants From Minor Donors In Massachusetts, Charles H. Baron, Margot Botsford, Garrick F. Cole Aug 2013

Live Organ And Tissue Transplants From Minor Donors In Massachusetts, Charles H. Baron, Margot Botsford, Garrick F. Cole

Charles H. Baron

This article examines the system of providing court approval for organ and tissue transplants from minor donors as it operates in Massachusetts. It focuses principally on the substantive interests of prospective donors and on the extent to which the current procedures afford them adequate protection. It begins by examining the requirement of consent and demonstrates the necessity of judicial authorization of minor donors' participation in transplant procedures. Next, it analyzes the current Massachusetts practice and assess its capacity to afford minor donors adequate protection from the possible dangers of serving as an organ or tissue donor. It suggests that the …


On Knowing One's Chains And Decking Them With Flowers: Limits On Patient Autonomy In "The Silent World Of Doctor And Patient", Charles Baron Aug 2013

On Knowing One's Chains And Decking Them With Flowers: Limits On Patient Autonomy In "The Silent World Of Doctor And Patient", Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In this article Professor Baron continues the debate started by Jay Katz in his book "The Silent World of Doctor and Patient" on the necessity of exploring further patients' reasons for refusing treatment.


Hastening Death: The Seven Deadly Sins Of The Status Quo, Charles Baron Aug 2013

Hastening Death: The Seven Deadly Sins Of The Status Quo, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

The seven deadly sins of the status quo -- inhumanity, paternalism, Utilitarianism, hypocrisy, lawlessness, injustice, and the deadly risk of error and abuse -- are seven arguments against maintaining the artificial bright-line distinction between the prohibition against assisted suicide and the allowance of patients’ right to refuse life-prolonging treatment. This article calls on courts and legislatures to follow the successful example of the Oregon Death with Dignity statute.


Blood Transfusions, Jehovah’S Witnesses, And The American Patients’ Rights Movement, Charles Baron Dec 2010

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


Hastening Death: The Seven Deadly Sins Of The Status Quo, Charles Baron Dec 2003

Hastening Death: The Seven Deadly Sins Of The Status Quo, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

The seven deadly sins of the status quo -- inhumanity, paternalism, Utilitarianism, hypocrisy, lawlessness, injustice, and the deadly risk of error and abuse -- are seven arguments against maintaining the artificial bright-line distinction between the prohibition against assisted suicide and the allowance of patients’ right to refuse life-prolonging treatment. This article calls on courts and legislatures to follow the successful example of the Oregon Death with Dignity statute.


Competency And Common Law: Why And How Decision-Making Capacity Criteria Should Be Drawn From The Capacity-Determination Process, Charles Baron May 2000

Competency And Common Law: Why And How Decision-Making Capacity Criteria Should Be Drawn From The Capacity-Determination Process, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

Determining competence to request physician-assisted suicide should be no more difficult than determining competence to refuse life-prolonging treatment. In both cases, criteria and procedures should be developed out of the process of actually making capacity determinations; they should not be promulgated a priori. Because patient demeanor plays a critical role in capacity determinations, it should be made part of the record of such determinations through greater use of video- and audiotapes.


On Knowing One's Chains And Decking Them With Flowers: Limits On Patient Autonomy In 'The Silent World Of Doctor And Patient', Charles Baron Dec 1986

On Knowing One's Chains And Decking Them With Flowers: Limits On Patient Autonomy In 'The Silent World Of Doctor And Patient', Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In this article Professor Baron continues the debate started by Jay Katz in his book "The Silent World of Doctor and Patient" on the necessity of exploring further patients' reasons for refusing treatment.


Live Organ And Tissue Transplants From Minor Donors In Massachusetts, Charles Baron, Margot Botsford, Garrick Cole Feb 1975

Live Organ And Tissue Transplants From Minor Donors In Massachusetts, Charles Baron, Margot Botsford, Garrick Cole

Charles H. Baron

This article examines the system of providing court approval for organ and tissue transplants from minor donors as it operates in Massachusetts. It focuses principally on the substantive interests of prospective donors and on the extent to which the current procedures afford them adequate protection. It begins by examining the requirement of consent and demonstrates the necessity of judicial authorization of minor donors' participation in transplant procedures. Next, it analyzes the current Massachusetts practice and assess its capacity to afford minor donors adequate protection from the possible dangers of serving as an organ or tissue donor. It suggests that the …