Law Commons^™

Report On The National Commission: Good As Gold, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research ended its work by substantially endorsing the status quo which places primary reliance on local Institutional Review Boards for subject protection. This was predictable because of the Commission's researcher-dominated composition which permitted it to assume that (1) research is good; (2) experimentation is almost never harmful to subjects; and (3) researcher-dominated IRBs can adequately protect the Interests of human subjects. The successor Presidential Commission can learn much by reexamining these premises.

The Case For Medical Licensure, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Locke et al. argue elsewhere in this issue that medical licensure should be abolished. Their reasoning is direct and seductive - but their free market cure is worse than the disease they describe. Their major premise, for example, is simply wrong: "Any governmental action that violates individual rights is improper." For this notion they cite the ultraconservative novelist Ayn Rand who talks about things that are "right" for humans to do. But there are two confusions: (I) rights do not exist in a vacuum; in an interdependent society the rights of individuals must sometimes be balanced against the rights of …

Review Of Human Rights, Pnina Lahav

Faculty Scholarship

This small volume, mostly of essays presented at the World Congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy held in Australia in 1977, addresses a random sample of the many faces of human rights.

Artists, Art Collectors And Income Tax, Alan L. Feld

Faculty Scholarship

The federal income tax law treats artists and art collectors differently. Similar transactions concerning artworks produce disparate income tax results, depending on whether they involve the artist or the collector. On balance, these results seem to favor the collector over the artist. But notwithstanding the dismay of some artists and their advocates, the differences in result flow, in the main, from the differences in the source of the taxpayer's investment in the work.

The collector buys the work with after-tax income. Any gain is properly treated as an investment return and is eligible for capital gain benefits.' The collector, however, …

How To Make The Massachusetts Patients' Bill Of Rights Work, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

The movement for enhanced patients' rights is based on two premises: (I) citizens possess certain rights that are not automatically forfeited by entering into a relationship with a physician or health care facility; and (2) most physicians and health care facilities fail to recognize these rights, fall to provide for their protection or assertion, and limit their exercise without recourse.

The primary argument against patients' rights is that patients have "needs" and defining these needs in terms of rights leads to the creation of an unhealthy adversary relationship.' It is not, however, the creation of rights, but the disregard of …

Lecture Draft On Sensory Recall Device - 1980, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Perception is a bodily function. The brain “sees” according to the orders which the optic nerve relays from its position at the back of the eye. Similarly, it is the brain which also "hears." As we know from our dreaming and our remembering, neither eye nor ear is indispensable to having the sensations of seeing and hearing.

An Inadequate Basis For Health, Safety, And Environmental Regulatory Decisionmaking, Michael S. Baram

Faculty Scholarship

The use of cost-benefit analysis in agency decisionmaking has been hailed as the cure for numerous dissatisfactions with governmental regulation. Using this form of economic analysis arguably promotes rational decisionmaking and prevents health, safety, and environmental regulations from having inflationary and other adverse economic impacts. Closer analysis, however, reveals that the cost-benefit approach to regulatory decisionmaking suffers from major methodological limitations and institutional abuses. In practice, regulatory uses of cost-benefit analysis stifle and obstruct the achievement of legislated health, safety, and environmental goals.

This Article critically reviews the methodological limitations of cost-benefit analysis, current agency uses of cost-benefit analysis under …

Fathers Anonymous: Beyond The Best Interests Of The Sperm Donor, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Alex Haley concludes his international best seller, Roots, with the burial of his father in Little Rock, Arkansas. Walking away from the graveside he ponders the past generations, observing "I feel that they do watch and guide." The book inspired whole industries devoted to the development of family trees, and locating one's "roots" has become somewhat of an obsession with many. Because of the current secrecy surrounding the practice of Artificial Insemination Donor (AID), there are an estimated 250,000 children conceived by AID (at the rate of 6-10,000 annually in the United States) who will never be able to find …

"Judicial Supervision Of Transnational Commercial Arbitration: The English Arbitration Act Of 1979, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

Present day interaction between court and arbitrator is reminiscent of the seventeenth century struggle between court and crown, in which King James I claimed that his representatives should have the right to adjudicate disputes according to "natural reason," not according to the "artificial ... judgment of the law." The Lord Chief Justice, Edward Coke, resisted this arrogation of power using words attributed to Bracton: "quod Rex non debet esse sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege." Although under no man, the King was subject to God and the law. The extent to which the modern commercial arbitrator should likewise be …

The Care Of Private Patients In Teaching Hospitals: Legal Implications, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

In Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick Ishmael searches for knowledge in diverse ways; he views the world not only through his senses but symbolically and metaphorically. At one point, he is tied to the pagan harpooner Queequeg by a "monkey-rope," and it is his duty to use this rope to pull Queequeg free from the sharks surrounding the dead whale that Queequeg is butchering when Queequeg slips from his perch atop the whale. Should he fail, Queequeg's weight will pull them both into the shark-filled waters. Ishmael ponders: "I seemed distinctly to perceive that my own individuality was now merged …

The Art Of Comparative Constitutional Law, Pnina Lahav

Faculty Scholarship

Until recently, German constitutional material has been generally inaccessible to the English speaking audience. Professor Kommers' scholarly contributions, particularly his book, Judicial Politics in West Germany. A Study of the Federal Constitutional Court,¹ have considerably amplified our knowledge in this area. His Article, The Jurisprudence of Free Speech in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany² provides additional insights into and fresh perspectives on German constitutional law. His Article might be of yet more value, however, if it demonstrated keener sensitivity to comparative constitutional law methodology and deeper analysis of the various substantive matters with …

Managing Risks To Health, Safety And Environment By The Use Of Alternatives To Regulation, Michael S. Baram, David Sandberg, Larry Dufault, Kevin Mcallister

Faculty Scholarship

The management of risks to health, safety and environment is one of the central concerns of our society. This important function has been largely delegated to federal regulatory agencies which, over the last decade, have tried to respond to the difficult mandate of managing risk under conditions of technical uncertainty by implementing complex regulatory programs. The federal government is now grappling with the design and implementation of various regulatory reforms to lessen economic burdens and to harmonize regulation with marketplace considerations, because of growing opposition to further regulation.

What has been left unpromoted as a reform thus far is the …