Law Commons^™

Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy: Let The Science Decide, Sabrina K. Glavota

Michigan Technology Law Review

Mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) is an in vitro fertilization technique designed to prevent women who are carriers of mitochondrial diseases from passing on these heritable genetic diseases to their children. It is an innovative assisted reproductive technology that is only legal in a small number of countries. The United States has essentially stagnated all opportunities for research and clinical trials on MRT through a rider in H.R.2029 – Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016. The rider bans clinical trials on all therapies in which a human embryo is intentionally altered to include a heritable genetic modification. This note argues that the rider …

From Automation To Autonomy: Legal And Ethical Responsibility Gaps In Artificial Intelligence Innovation, David Nersessian, Ruben Mancha

Michigan Technology Law Review

The increasing prominence of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in daily life and the evolving capacity of these systems to process data and act without human input raise important legal and ethical concerns. This article identifies three primary AI actors in the value chain (innovators, providers, and users) and three primary types of AI (automation, augmentation, and autonomy). It then considers responsibility in AI innovation from two perspectives: (i) strict liability claims arising out of the development, commercialization, and use of products with built-in AI capabilities (designated herein as “AI artifacts”); and (ii) an original research study on the ethical practices …

Digital Colonialism: The 21st Century Scramble For Africa Through The Extraction And Control Of User Data And The Limitations Of Data Protection Laws, Danielle Coleman

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

As Western technology companies increasingly rely on user data globally, extensive data protection laws and regulations emerged to ensure ethical use of that data. These same protections, however, do not exist uniformly in the resource-rich, infrastructure-poor African countries, where Western tech seeks to establish its presence. These conditions provide an ideal landscape for digital colonialism.

Digital colonialism refers to a modern-day “Scramble for Africa” where largescale tech companies extract, analyze, and own user data for profit and market influence with nominal benefit to the data source. Under the guise of altruism, large scale tech companies can use their power and …

Beyond Rights And Welfare: Democracy, Dialogue, And The Animal Welfare Act, Jessica Eisen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The primary frameworks through which scholars have conceptualized legal protections for animals—animal “rights” and animal “welfare”—do not account for socio-legal transformation or democratic dialogue as central dynamics of animal law. The animal “rights” approach focuses on the need for limits or boundaries preventing animal use, while the animal “welfare” approach advocates balancing harm to animals against human benefits from animal use. Both approaches rely on abstract accounts of the characteristics animals are thought to share with humans and the legal protections they are owed as a result of those traits. Neither offers sustained attention to the dynamics of legal change …

Science, Humanity, And Atrocity: A Lawyerly Examination, Steven D. Smith

Michigan Law Review

Joseph Vining's reflection on (as the subtitle indicates) the claims of science and humanity begins with a terse but disturbing recitation of these and similar scientific experiments conducted on human beings during the twentieth century in Manchuria, Nazi Germany, and Pol Pot's Cambodia. The incidents are conveyed through quotations, sometimes of the coldly clinical prose that the researchers themselves chose as most suitable for their purposes. These quotations are juxtaposed against others from an array of distinguished scientists and philosophers explaining the naturalistic cosmology that, in the view of these thinkers, modern science has given us: it is a stark, …

Life Sciences, Technology, And The Law - Symosium Transcript - March 7, 2003, Philip R. Reilly, David H. Kaye, Jonathan J. Koehler, Richard O. Lempert

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Life sciences, Technology, and the Law Symposium held at the University of Michigan Law School Friday, March 7, 2003

Criminal Liability For Misconduct In Scientific Research, Susan M. Kuzma

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article will explore our society's attitude to prosecuting scientific misconduct, the need to consider prosecution in such cases, and the utility of current statutes available for prosecution. To assist the reader in understanding the issues, this Article will provide some background information about misconduct in scientific research and will include a discussion of some specific incidents. These background materials provide a context for my argument that criminal sanctions should be available to punish scientific misconduct. Finally, I propose a federal criminal statute designed specifically for prosecuting scientific misconduct.

Federal Biotechnology Policy: The Perils Of Progress And The Risks Of Uncertainty, Al Gore

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Americans have a schizophrenic view of science and technology. Some of our greatest heroes have been technological pioneers- from the Wright brothers to Lindbergh to Chuck Yeager. Until recently, we expressed unmitigated adoration for the scientists and engineers who put man in space. Yet at the same time, many Americans are generally uneasy about the triumph of technology in their own lives. One does not have to be a Luddite to rail against computers every now and then.

In deciding how to allocate precious public resources in an era of limits, legislators must take public perceptions of science very seriously. …

On The Human Body As Property: The Meaning Of Embodiment, Markets, And The Meaning Of Strangers, Thomas H. Murray

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

For as long as I can recall, newspapers have published brief items in which someone has calculated what the human body is "worth" on the open market. The value of the body-as reduced to its chemical components-was never more than a few dollars. A more accurate accounting, though, would include the market value of transplantable organs and tissues, as well as the potential bonanza to be had should a cell line cultured from that body prove valuable to the biotechnology industry. The bottom line could be anywhere from tens of thousands to perhaps millions of dollars.

Both moral and legal …

Governmental Control Of Research In Positive Eugencis, I. Scott Bass

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article examines the potential societal problems that would accompany the implementation of eugenics programs and considers possible mechanisms for dealing with these problems. Governmental control of research in positive eugenics is identified as a practical means of preempting the undesirable consequences of scientific advances. Since proposed government research controls would infringe upon academic freedom of inquiry, the constitutional issues raised by this clash are framed and analyzed.