Law Commons^™

Systematic Racism, Abortion And Bias In Medicine: All Threads Woven In The Cloth Of Racial Disparity For Mothers And Infants, Gabrielle Ploplis

Journal of Law and Health

This note argues that decisions like that of NAACP v. Wilmington Medical Center, Inc. have been one of many contributing factors in the disparity in mortality rates of both black and American Indian/Alaska Native newborns in comparison to white newborns across the country. Part II examines the current state of the law regarding issues of discrimination, accessibility of health care, and relocation and closure of medical centers that has disproportionately affect minorities in the U.S. Part III discusses the statistics of white, black, and American Indian/Alaska Native newborn and maternal mortality rates in the United States. Part IV addresses the …

Unexpected Inequality: Disparate-Impact From Artificial Intelligence In Healthcare Decisions, Sahar Takshi

Journal of Law and Health

Systemic discrimination in healthcare plagues marginalized groups. Physicians incorrectly view people of color as having high pain tolerance, leading to undertreatment. Women with disabilities are often undiagnosed because their symptoms are dismissed. Low-income patients have less access to appropriate treatment. These patterns, and others, reflect long-standing disparities that have become engrained in U.S. health systems.

As the healthcare industry adopts artificial intelligence and algorithminformed (AI) tools, it is vital that regulators address healthcare discrimination. AI tools are increasingly used to make both clinical and administrative decisions by hospitals, physicians, and insurers—yet there is no framework that specifically places nondiscrimination obligations …

Pregnant Employees, Working Mothers And The Workplace - Legislation, Social Change And Where We Are Today , Thomas H. Barnard, Adrienne L. Rapp

Journal of Law and Health

Accordingly, the focus of this Article is on the legal and social evolution resulting from the Civil Rights Act's prohibition of sex-based discrimination- and, in particular, pregnancy-related discrimination - in the workplace. Section II of this Article details the reluctance with which courts and employers initially extended workplace rights to women. Sections III and IV discuss Title VII's prohibition against "sex" discrimination and initial court hesitation to interpret that prohibition to include employees discriminated against on the basis of pregnancy. Sections V and VI provide an overview of federal and Ohio law granting pregnancy-related rights to women, including the PDA, …

The Need For Parity In Health Insurance Benefits For The Mentally And Physically Disabled: Questioning Inconsistency Between Two Leading Anti-Discrimination Laws, Sarah Ritz

Journal of Law and Health

Discriminatory practices by the insurance industry, such as benefit limits (caps) on mental health services coverage, or complete lack of mental health care coverage fuel the disparate treatment of those with mental disabilities. These discriminatory practices have been the subject of much debate, and cases challenging those principles have not fared well in the court system. These insurance practices, which single out persons with mental illness and provide them with little or no benefits for mental health care, violate the terms of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), and are inconsistent with other laws that seek to remedy discrimination against …

Genomic Medicine: The Human Genome Project From A Healthcare Provider's Perspective, Georgia Wiesner

Journal of Law and Health

But the Human Genome Project from my point of view as a healthcare provider has really been on what advantages and what advances can we be able to provide from that. So we really learned a lot about how genes work, how they talk together and how we actually have both health and disease as a consequence of the Human Genome Project. So really understanding this complex interaction is one of the most exciting things as well. What this really has done for healthcare is allowed us to individualize our healthcare. To be able to say for one person against …

Reasons To Eschew Federal Lawmaking And Embrace Common Law Approaches To Genetic Discrimination, S. Candice Hoke

Journal of Law and Health

Professor Hoffman and I agree: there ought to be some laws, but I want to talk to you a little bit about two possible, two real goals here. One is to ask you to critically evaluate whether a federal statute is the right remedial response at this point in time, and secondly, to ask you to start thinking about the possibility of drafting into service what we in law refer to as traditional state common-law approaches that actually might give us more and better ways to remedy what's going on than simply turning to Congress.

Legislation And Genetic Discrimination, Sharona Hoffman

Journal of Law and Health

State legislation addresses genetic discrimination in both employment and health insurance. Thirty-one states have passed laws that address genetic discrimination in employment. Approximately thirteen states prohibit employers from requiring applicants to undergo genetic testing as a condition of employment. Some states have more limited restrictions. Florida prohibits only the screening of applicants for the sickle-cell trait. Wisconsin requires employers to obtain written and informed consent from applicants prior to administering genetic tests, but does not preclude their utilization altogether. Some states establish exceptions that permit genetic testing that is job-related or that is conducted, with the employee's written and informed …

Genetic Discrimination: Does It Exist, And What Are Its Implications?, Paul Steven Miller

Journal of Law and Health

Does genetic discrimination exist? Thus far, there have been no cases other than Burlington Northern and maybe a couple of other cases which have been filed by plaintiffs in either federal or state court. Notwithstanding all of the statutes, there haven't been a tremendous amount of charges coming in, people coming to the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), or to respective state agencies and even filing charges. This fact confuses me, because I actually believe that genetic discrimination, as we've been talking about it, is happening more often in the real world than this charge flow would indicate.

Genetic Testing And Employment Litigation, Harry Zanville

Journal of Law and Health

I have only a couple of comments to make that relate to litigation hurdles and how to achieve this balance, and the first thing I want to talk about, following the wonderful presentation is, in fact, we probably don't in some ways even need a new cause of action.