Law Commons^™

Broken Promises: The Granite State’S Return To The Institutionalization Of Children With Disabilities, Elizabeth Trautz

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

In 1975, the New Hampshire legislature enacted a progressive statute which mandated the Department of Health and Human Services “to establish, maintain, implement and coordinate a comprehensive service delivery system for developmentally disabled persons.” This law was innovative for its time; it decreed that individual service plans (ISPs) be developed for every client in the state’s service delivery system, guaranteed “a right to adequate and humane habilitation and treatment[,]” and contemplated the state’s area agency system as we know it today. The statute was a steppingstone for the 1981 class action lawsuit of Garrity v. Gallen. This was one of …

From Trusted Confidant To Witness For The Prosecution: The Case Against The Recognition Of A Dangerous-Patient Exception To The Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege, Deborah Paruch

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “In 1996, in Jaffee v. Redmond, the U.S. Supreme Court, pursuant to the authority set forth in Federal Rule of Evidence 501, recognized a psychotherapist-patient privilege in the federal courts. In doing so, the Court acknowledged the essential role that confidentiality plays in a therapist-patient relationship and also recognized the important role that psychotherapy plays in the mental health of the American citizenry. However, in dicta set out in a footnote near the conclusion of the opinion (footnote 19 of the opinion), the Court suggested that the privilege might not be absolute, that it might need to “give way …

The Elderly And Health Care Rationing, George P. Smith Ii

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “The allocation of health care resources involves a societal determination of what resources should be devoted to a particular program. The allocation process is typically performed on a ―macro‖ level, with allocation decisions often affecting only statistical lives. In contrast to the identifiable lives often affected by health care rationing, statistical lives affected by allocation decisions are much more readily sacrificed. A common means of deciding health care allocation is through political processes. Government decisions pertaining to health care spending and regulation typically involve allocation determinations. For example, the Medicare and Medicaid programs allocate resources for numerous purposes. Hospitals, …

Universal Health Care, American Pragmatism, And The Ethics Of Health Policy: Questioning Political Efficacy, Daniel S. Goldberg

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “This article will explore the conceptual implications of applying ethical critique and analysis to health policy. This is not to imply any reductionist conception of health policy in which ethics is absent. As Deborah Stone and John W. Kingdon both note, policy is fraught with ethical implications, and value prioritization is a sine qua non for health policy. Nevertheless, I wish to suggest that there are some conceptually significant distinctions in thinking of the ethics of health policy as opposed to thinking separately about ethics and about health policy. Moreover, these distinctions themselves are of value, both in thinking …

Entitlements: Not Just A Health Care Problem, Andrew G. Biggs

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “A new consensus on entitlement reform has developed in Washington: rising per-capita health care spending is the only real crisis besetting the government‘s entitlement programs, while America‘s aging population and Social Security play minor roles at best. Some cite this view to shift the policy emphasis from entitlement cost control to the restructuring of the U.S. health sector, including private health care. But this new consensus is flawed. Using standard accounting practices and including all major government entitlement programs, population aging will play an equal role with health care cost growth over the next seventy-five years and a significantly …

Revisiting The Regulation Debate: The Effect Of Food Marketing On Childhood Obesity, Nicole E. Hunter

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Despite the widespread concern regarding childhood obesity, there is broad divergence of opinion regarding responsibility for the crisis. Whether the government, food industry, or parents are accountable has become the focus of much debate. Public health groups have attempted various strategies to confront childhood obesity, such as litigation, legislation, and government regulation. While many researchers and advocates agree that government should play an affirmative role with respect to childhood obesity, they are very much divided over what that role should be. For example, although none of these acts has become law, eighty-six bills have been proposed regarding obesity since …

Stealing What's Free: Exploring Compensation To Body Parts Sources For Their Contribution To Profitable Biomedical Research, Jo-Anne Yau

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “At first blush, donating body parts in the name of science appears to be a beautiful solution to the problem of scarce body parts for research advancements. But a closer investigation reveals an ugly fact: the philanthropic donors—referred to as “Sources” in this article—are subjected to physical and financial exploitation.

Sources play a crucial and indispensable role in biotechnology. Without human body parts, most medical discoveries would not have been possible. Handsome profits can be derived from successful discoveries. But currently in the United States, when a Source provides body parts for research purposes, the researcher, research foundation, and …