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Full-Text Articles in Law
Wrongful Birth And Wrongful Conception: A Parent's Need For A Cause Of Action, Mary B. Sullivan
Wrongful Birth And Wrongful Conception: A Parent's Need For A Cause Of Action, Mary B. Sullivan
Journal of Law and Health
The purpose of this note is to demonstrate the need for wrongful birth and wrongful conception claims. Arguments have been made that these claims should be combined into one cause of action. The rationale for this argument is that by combining the two claims, chaos in the courts will be reduced. This note will show the need to maintain these claims as separate from one another. This note also demonstrates the proper stance of the courts in rejecting the wrongful life cause of action. Part II of this note gives an overview of medical malpractice and the claims of wrongful …
Malpractice And Other Legal Issues Preventing The Development Of Telemedicine , Christopher Caryl
Malpractice And Other Legal Issues Preventing The Development Of Telemedicine , Christopher Caryl
Journal of Law and Health
Even though most Americans have not heard of telemedicine, the federal government is already actively involved in "developing a national telemedicine strategy." This note attempts to accomplish the following: demonstrate the urgent need of rural communities to gain access to adequate health care; clarify how telemedicine can provide enhanced health care to rural communities; and analyze the legal obstacles that have prevented, thus far, the most beneficial utilization of telemedicine. In particular, this note will examine how malpractice claims arising from telemedicine consultations might be resolved. An important issue to recognize at the outset, and one that consistently reappears throughout …
Ridicule Or Recourse: Parents Falsely Accused Of Past Sexual Abuse Fight Back , Jeffrey M. Whitesell
Ridicule Or Recourse: Parents Falsely Accused Of Past Sexual Abuse Fight Back , Jeffrey M. Whitesell
Journal of Law and Health
This Note argues that wrongly accused parents should be granted standing by the courts to bring suit against therapists who negligently suggest that their children are victims of sexual abuse. The first section will analyze the validity of recovered memories obtained through the use of various suggestive techniques. The second section will explore the various causes of action that courts are considering actionable by innocent third parties against the therapists who implant false memories. The causes of action that will be analyzed are malpractice, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, loss of companionship and society, and breach of contract. …
Doctors, Nurses And Superseding Cause: The Demise Of The Last In Time Defense, Charles Lattanzi
Doctors, Nurses And Superseding Cause: The Demise Of The Last In Time Defense, Charles Lattanzi
Journal of Law and Health
The question which naturally arises is whether the determination of superseding cause in this context is a question for the jury. Ohio case law has long held, as a matter of law, that the aggravation of an injury by the subsequent malpractice of a physician never breaks the chain of causation. Assuming that the original tortfeaser was negligent and that his actions caused the original injury, the only question left for the jury is whether the plaintiff herself exercised reasonable care in seeking treatment by a qualified physician. This rule was affirmed and given its common appellation, "the subsequent tortfeasor …
A New Predicament For Physicians: The Concept Of Medical Futility, The Physician's Obligation To Render Inappropriate Treatment, And The Interplay Of The Medical Standard Of Care, Eric M. Levine
Journal of Law and Health
Part II of this article discusses the concept of futility and reviews various proposed approaches to defining "futility". This article then shows how personal value judgments play an integral part in determining futility under virtually all of these approaches. Part II concludes that a decision that treatment is futile should not be based on the individual values of only the patient or physician under the shared decisionmaking model of the physician-patient relationship. Part III tackles the issue whether a physician must offer or continue treatment deemed "medically and ethically inappropriate." Part III first reviews common law doctrines governing the physician-patient …
Resolving The Medical Malpractice Crisis: Alternatives To Litigation, Allen K. Hutkin
Resolving The Medical Malpractice Crisis: Alternatives To Litigation, Allen K. Hutkin
Journal of Law and Health
This article will review the societal and individual costs of the present medical malpractice system, analyze current efforts to reform the system, and propose several alternatives for consideration. These alternatives include expanding the use of alternative dispute resolution, reformulating the doctor/patient relationship, expanding the scope of conventional hospital risk management and modifying the manner in which medical malpractice insurance is presently provided.
Hospital Liability: Implications Of Recent Physician's Assistant Statutes, Daniel W. Coyne
Hospital Liability: Implications Of Recent Physician's Assistant Statutes, Daniel W. Coyne
Cleveland State Law Review
New methods must be devised to increase the efficient use of the available supply of physicians. "Among the innovations being tried with physicians is the development of new disciplines involving assistants to physicians." Increasing utilization of returning medics from the armed forces is being undertaken to help relieve the civilian manpower shortage. The legal implications of these developments range from problems of licensure to considerations of vicarious liability for an assistant's negligence (malpractice) or for the negligence of the assistant's supervising physician. It is with a species of this latter problem that this paper will be concerned. But one ought …
Malpractice Actions Without Expert Medical Testimony, William P. Gibbons
Malpractice Actions Without Expert Medical Testimony, William P. Gibbons
Cleveland State Law Review
Fear of malpractice actions against them is causing physicians to "run scared." Some physicians now say that they feel that the threat of legal action has materially altered the practice of medicine. Defensively, some medical doctors say that they are ordering additional X-rays and lab tests, just to have them on record. Others say they are just plain afraid to try new techniques and diagnostic treatments because of the specter of a malpractice action. Innovative techniques carry additional risks, and some doctors admit that in some risky situations they merely do what will keep them out of trouble rather than …
Malpractice By Veterinarians, Martin J. Strobel
Malpractice By Veterinarians, Martin J. Strobel
Cleveland State Law Review
The veterinarian's liability is measured by the same basic standards applicable to physicians and surgeons. In both fields the technical nature of the malpractice action creates special problems. To determine the issue of liability the jury must identify both the historical facts and the standard of care. Attempting to resolve issues of medical fact may be difficult for a lay jury; such resolution demanding as it does, not merely an appraisal of the witnesses' demeanor and character, but an evaluation of their stories in the context of the situation giving rise to the cause of action.
Malpractice In Dental Anesthesiology, Allen L. Perry
Malpractice In Dental Anesthesiology, Allen L. Perry
Cleveland State Law Review
Cases invovlving dental anesthesia reveal that breaches of the duty to use proper skill and care have occurred in selection of the type of anesthetic, method of administration, failure to examine the patient, use of unsterile instruments, failure to use safety devices, and failure to properly care for patients under the influence of anesthesia. Persons practicing dental anesthesiology, like those pracing medicine and surgery, must be duly able and careful. This rule is elementary and is founded on considerations of public policy. Whenever the behavior of a dentist or dental anesthesiologist has been of a nature such that a dereliction …
Contibutory Negligence In Medical Malpractice, W. David Alderson
Contibutory Negligence In Medical Malpractice, W. David Alderson
Cleveland State Law Review
Three categories of cases have been noted out of the mass of factually individualistic ones concerning medical malpractice and contributory negligence. The first, where a breach of duty owed the patient by the physician is lacking, involves an injury produced by the patient's own negligence. In the second, the patient's negligence directly contributes to the severity of an injury already present because of the physician's negligence. The plaintiff-patient's damages are not mitigated but rather entirely precluded in light of his acts. Thus a plea of contributory negligence is a complete defense. The third category includes those cases where a time …
Informed Consent To Medical Treatment, Milton Oppenheim
Informed Consent To Medical Treatment, Milton Oppenheim
Cleveland State Law Review
Medical malpractice is usually considered in terms of negligent conduct by the physician in the course of the physician-patient relation. Many of the actions are not predicated on the law of negligence, although this type of malpractice undoubtedly is the most common type of litigation. A substantial group of cases deal with unauthorized operations, which are characterized as battery, emerging from lack of informed consent.
X-Ray Malpractice, Lucien B. Karlovec
X-Ray Malpractice, Lucien B. Karlovec
Cleveland State Law Review
Doctors today are subjected to many malpractice suits involving non-surgical injuries. Common among these nonsurgical injuries are x-ray injuries. Most of the injuries produced by x-rays have been excessive skin reactions, i.e., burns, occurring during either diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. The improper use of x-rays can produce damage other than skin burns, i.e., fibrosis (in effect, shrinkage) of internal organs, sterility or prenatal injuries.