Law Commons^™

Handicapped Babies And The Law: The United States Position, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Intimations Of Immorality: Clones, Cyrons And The Law, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

This article examines some legal and moral issues associated with two developing areas of biomedicine; cloning and cryonics. The author firstly considers the practical benefits to society of developing perfecting and utilizing the process of cloning. These include the ability to overcome inheritable genetic defects and the provision of organs for transplantation. Against this must be weighed some moral and ethical problems of genetic engineering. Professor Smith then discusses the process of deep-freezing a person and the development of cryonics as a social movement. The major legal problem stemming from cryonics is determining the time at which a cryonically suspended …

The Razor’S Edge Of Human Bonding: Artificial Fathers And Surrogate Mothers, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

This article will examine the plight of the artificial father and surrogate mother by focusing on how the law views artificial insemination. From this focus, the author will explore alternative responses for dealing with problems involving surrogate mothers, donor insemination, and infertility and show their symbiotic, if not direct, relation to the problem of infertility.

Intrusions Of A Parvenu: Science, Religion, And The New Biology, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

Both religion and the law must seriously consider artificial insemination so that dogma and laws are formed to incorporate the process. Science has brought the procedure to a society unequipped to deal with the religious and legal implications of birth through artificial insemination in any of its forms. Not all religions or jurisdictions can be expected to treat the process exactly alike, but there must be an effort on the part of each organization to react to the situation facing them so that their citizens will have some guidance.

Section II of this article illuminates the path science is on …

The Promise Of Abundant Life: Patenting A Magnificent Obsession, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this essay will be to explore the parameters of the scientific imperative to explore truth. The scope of this inquiry is shaped in part by the United States patent laws and administrative interpretations and, more specifically, by the United States Supreme Court in its recent holding allowing the new forms of life created in a laboratory to be patented. The ultimate purpose of this piece, then, is to refute the arrogance of power theory expressed as being implicit in the investigations of the vast potential for the positive achievement of good through harnessing the "New Biology." Thus, …

Great Expectations Or Convoluted Realities: Artificial Insemination In Flux, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Uncertainties On The Spiral Staircase: Meta-Ethics And The New Biology, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Manipulating The Genetic Code: Jurisprudential Conundrums, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

This article considers the scientific, legal, ethical, and social issues of the Brave New World of Biotechnology as they existed in 1976 and as they exist — interestingly — today. Central to these issues (e.g., in vitro fertilization, genetic planning) presented in historical context, is consideration of the extent to which freedom of scientific investigation should be allowed and even encouraged by the government. In order to shape normative standards of conduct from which ethical constructs can be developed and policy developed, scientific experimentation must be promoted and designed to safeguard the common good — this, by enhancing opportunities for …

Through A Test Tube Darkly: Artificial Insemination And The Law, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

Although written forty-four years ago, this article provides a foundational analysis of the then-nascent beginnings of the legalization of artificial insemination from the judicial posture taken by the state of California to the legislative stance of Oklahoma. Analyzing the consequences of artificial insemination by a donor (A.I.D.) and by a woman’s husband (A.I.H.), the consequences of these procedures on family law — and especially illegitimacy — inheritance, and adultery, are studied and evaluated.

In order to provide some degree of stability and predictability to this obviously contentious area within Law, Science, and Medicine, this article urges measured experimentation in genetics …