Law Commons^™

On The Road Again: Revisiting State Laws That Unreasonably Restrict Drivers With Epilepsy And Burden The Physicians Who Treat Them, Katrina E. Luffy

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

When a driver with epilepsy experiences a seizure behind the wheel, she is more likely than not to cause an accident. Consequently, all fifty states and the District of Columbia have statutes, regulations, and policies governing drivers with epilepsy and the physicians who treat them. Although these laws aim to protect the states' interest in public safety, many of them are premised on the inaccurate assumption that drivers with epilepsy have higher crash rates than the general population. They provide blanket restrictions for a highly individualized disorder and ignore evidence that drivers with other disorders or diseases should be of …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.

The Gutting Of The Peer Review Protection Act: How Reginelli V. Boggs Weakened The Protection Of Medical Peer Review In Pennsylvania And Why The General Assembly Must Act To Restore That Protection, Samuel C. Nolan

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Illegitimate Medical Purpose: Resolving The Fundamental Flaw In Criminal Prosecutions Involving Physicians Charged With Overprescribing Prescription Opioids, Jacob C. Hanley

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Under Kemp’S Eye: Analyzing The Constitutionality Of The Heartbeat Restriction In Georgia’S Life Act And Its Potential Impact On Abortion Law, Brittney A. Sizemore

Mercer Law Review

The current state of women’s right to bodily autonomy in the United States has eerily begun to resemble that of the dystopian society depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale. While abortion rates have steadily declined over the last decade, the attempts by state legislatures to restrict or completely take away women’s right to abortion have exponentially increased. In the first six months of 2019 alone, five states passed laws placing restrictions on abortion. These restrictions range from limiting the time frame in which a woman may obtain an abortion to when a fetal heartbeat has been detected—normally around six weeks—to a …

Germany’S Digital Health Reforms In The Covid-19 Era: Lessons And Opportunities For Other Countries, Sara Gerke, Ariel D. Stern, Timo Minssen

Faculty Scholarly Works

Reimbursement is a key challenge for many new digital health solutions, whose importance and value have been highlighted and expanded by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Germany’s new Digital Healthcare Act (Digitale–Versorgung–Gesetz or DVG) entitles all individuals covered by statutory health insurance to reimbursement for certain digital health applications (i.e., insurers will pay for their use). Since Germany, like the United States (US), is a multi-payer health care system, the new Act provides a particularly interesting case study for US policymakers. We first provide an overview of the new German DVG and outline the landscape for reimbursement of digital health solutions …

Minding The Gaps In Regulation Of Do-It-Yourself Biotechnology, Barbara J. Evans

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Symposium confronts the reality that genetic technologies – not just genetic tests, but tools for altering plant, animal, and human genomes – are rapidly becoming and indeed already are consumer technologies. People can experiment with and apply these technologies in disintermediated formats, potentially without the involvement of national research funding agencies, professional scientists, physicians, genetic counselors, regulators, and traditional medical product manufacturers. The framework of 20th -century medical product and practice regulations assigned each of these parties a role in promoting ethical, safe, and effective biomedical research and health care. Do-it-yourself biotechnology (DIYbio), which includes direct-to-consumer (DTC) and do-it-yourself …

Competency To Decide For Another, Elyn R. Saks

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Our topic is competency of a Substitute Decisionmaker (SubDM) to make a decision about medical treatment for another who is incompetent himself (the “ward”). While there is Competency to Decide for Another considerable literature on competency to decide for oneself, there is very little on competency to decide for another. Some studies look at a range of things that a SubDM needs to do —for example, seek information on what the ward has said—but there is none on how well a person must understand the relevant issues to be a competent SubDM.

The Paradoxes Of Defensive Medicine, Michael J. Saks, Stephan Landsman

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

For decades, “defensive medicine” has been the leading argument driving reforms of medical malpractice laws throughout the United States. Defensive medicine is the presumed practice of administering excessive tests and treatments as a stratagem for reducing healthcare providers’ risk of malpractice liability, despite the absence of any expected benefit for the patient. The practice is widely believed to exist throughout American healthcare as a response to fears of malpractice litigation, and thought to be enormously wasteful of healthcare dollars. In consequence, it has become a justification for law reforms insulating the healthcare industry from tort liability. These claims are promoted …

Why The United States Is Failing New Mothers And How It Can Counteract Its Rapidly Climbing Maternal Mortality Rate, Khouloude Abboud

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.

Of Mosquitoes And "Moral Convictions" In The Age Of Zika: How The Trump Administration's Gutting Of The Affordable Care Act's Contraceptive Mandate Jeopardizes Women's And Children's Health, Linda C. Fentiman

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

The Trump Administration’s efforts to undo the contraceptive mandate, a key component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), threaten a major public health emergency, as well as the rule of law and separation of powers. The Trump Administration’s Rules greatly expand the grounds for exemption from the contraceptive mandate: they allow even publicly traded corporations to assert religious beliefs as a ground for exemption and exempt all employers except publicly traded corporations from compliance with the contraceptive mandate if they hold “moral convictions” in opposition to contraception. By denying women access to effective, affordable contraception, these Rules increase the odds …

Medical Aid In Dying By Telehealth, Konstantin Tretyakov

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Medical aid in dying is a form of medical treatment recognized in several states and the District of Columbia and available to adult residents of those states who are competent and suffer from a terminal disease. Timely access to it is critical for qualifying patients. The article explores the possibility of facilitating access to medical aid in dying via telehealth—a method of providing health care remotely by means of electronic communication. Specifically, I analyze the feasibility of medical aid in dying by telehealth from clinical and legal perspectives. I also examine a relevant normative issue of the nature of in-person …

The Promise And Failures Of Children's Medicaid And The Role Of Medical-Legal Partnerships As Monitors And Advocates, L. Kate Mitchell

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

For decades we have known that access to early and preventive diagnosis and treatment can dramatically alter the course of a child’s life. Because of this knowledge, immediately after Congress enacted Medicaid, it created the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment, or EPSDT, program. EPSDT requires broad, holistic, and preventive care to correct or ameliorate health defects identified in Medicaid-eligible children. This coverage currently extends to 2 out of 5 children in the United States, and 47 percent of children with special health care needs. Because of the broad parameters of coverage mandated by EPSDT, Medicaid-eligible children should receive …

Where No One Can Hear You Scream: Regulating The Commercial Space Industry To Ensure Human Safety, Kurt Harris

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Outstanding Note of the Year (2019)

23anddiverseme: Using Genetic Ancestry Tests To Establish Minority Status, Robert Karl

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.

Medicalization And The New Civil Rights, Craig Konnoth

Publications

In the last several decades, individuals have advanced civil rights claims that rely on the language of medicine. This Article is the first to define and defend these “medical civil rights” as a unified phenomenon.

Individuals have increasingly used the language of medicine to seek rights and benefits, often for conditions that would not have been cognizable even a few years ago. For example, litigants have claimed that discrimination against transgender individuals constitutes illegal disability discrimination. Others have argued that their fatigue constitutes chronic fatigue syndrome (which was, until recently, a novel and contested diagnosis) to obtain Social Security disability …

On Trust, Law, And Expecting The Worst, Elizabeth F. Emens

Faculty Scholarship

This Review has three parts. Part I aims to convey something of the breadth and interest of Hasday’s fascinating new book, foregrounding the role of gender and beginning to touch the subject of trust. Part II delves briefly but widely into the theme of trust, which pervades the book and invites further examination. Part III presents a framework that combines affective trust and epistemic curiosity and applies this framework to illuminate and sort Hasday’s proposals for reform; to critique a recent, dramatic change in the evidentiary treatment of marital confidences; and to devise a novel approach to prenuptial agreements. Throughout, …

Association Between State Policies Using Medicaid Exclusions To Sanction Noncompliance With Welfare Work Requirements And Medicaid Participation Among Low-Income Adults, Atheendar S. Venkataramani, Elizabeth F. Bair, Erica Dixon, Kristin A. Linn, William J. Ferrell, Kevin G. Volpp, Kristen Underhill

Faculty Scholarship

Twenty states have pursued community engagement requirements (ie, work requirements) as a condition for Medicaid eligibility among adults considered able-bodied. Work requirements seek to improve health by incentivizing work, but may result in coverage losses.

The impact of work requirements on Medicaid coverage may extend beyond qualifying beneficiaries, by increasing confusion around benefit rules or deterring individuals from applying for coverage. However, the spillover effects of work requirements on individuals not directly subject to them are difficult to study because these programs have only recently been implemented. To examine this possibility, we studied Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the …

Say “No” To Discrimination, “Yes” To Accommodation: Why States Should Prohibit Discrimination Of Workers Who Use Cannabis For Medical Purposes, Anne Marie Lofaso, Lakyn D. Cecil

Seattle University Law Review

This Article addresses the question of how the law should treat medical cannabis in the employment context. Using Colorado as a primary example, we argue that states such as Colorado should amend their constitutions and legislate to provide employment protections for employees who are registered medical cannabis cardholders or registered caregivers.

Part I briefly traces the legal regulation of cannabis from an unregulated medicine known as cannabis to a highly regulated illicit substance known as marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act. Our travail through this history reveals, unsurprisingly, an increasing demonization of cannabis throughout the twentieth century. That socio-legal demonization …