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The "People's Total War On Covid-19": Urban Pandemic Management Through (Non-)Law In Wuhan, China, Philipp Renninger
The "People's Total War On Covid-19": Urban Pandemic Management Through (Non-)Law In Wuhan, China, Philipp Renninger
Washington International Law Journal
Although COVID-19 was first detected in the People’s Republic of China, the pandemic now appears contained there. Western and Chinese media attribute this apparent success to the central level of the Chinese state and the Communist Party. However, this article reveals that local entities provided critical contributions to China’s COVID-19 management, particularly in the pandemic’s first epicenter: Wuhan city in Hubei province. Chinese cities like Wuhan can fight public health emergencies through legal and nonlegal instruments. Although Wuhan had prepared for possible pandemics, its existing plans, institutions, and warning systems initially failed against COVID-19. The city did not contain the …
Introduction: Positioning Universal Health Coverage In The Post-2015 Development Agenda, Andrea L. Frey
Introduction: Positioning Universal Health Coverage In The Post-2015 Development Agenda, Andrea L. Frey
Washington International Law Journal
Protecting and promoting health is central to sustained economic and social development. Three of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (“MDGs”) focused on health, including reducing incidences of HIV and malaria, improving maternal health, and reducing child mortality. Although specifying disease areas and health outcomes ensured that the targets had a clear focus, it also created many problems. In particular, the approach neglected the creation of strong, effective health systems. The UN’s adoption of the MDGs in 2000 created greater recognition that sustaining progress in health depends on such systems in the international community. The MDGs conclude at the …
Innovative Financing And Sustainable Development: Lessons From Global Health, David Gartner
Innovative Financing And Sustainable Development: Lessons From Global Health, David Gartner
Washington International Law Journal
The growth of innovative financing for development over the last decade has demonstrated the enormous potential of new mechanisms for generating resources beyond traditional official development assistance. In the global health sector, diverse innovative finance institutions provide a window into the relative merits of approaches that rely on taxation, bonds, and advanced contract arrangements. The experience of IFFIm, UNITAID, and the AMC offer broader insights into the importance of sustainability and participation in ensuring the success of innovative finance mechanisms, as well as the potential for innovative financing to contribute to realizing the Sustainable Development Goals. The most successful of …
Why Japan Should Legalize Surrogacy, Trisha A. Wolf
Why Japan Should Legalize Surrogacy, Trisha A. Wolf
Washington International Law Journal
Beyond a recommendation from the Japanese Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology to not work with patients who want to engage in surrogacy contracts, no legal framework exists for regulating surrogacy in Japan. Because of this recommendation, as of December 2013, only one doctor in the entire country will work with families using surrogates. Therefore, Japanese families often travel abroad to use surrogates, generally to the United States, India, or Thailand. Surrogacy tourism creates a number of problems. Babies born to surrogates have been considered stateless because neither the surrogate’s country nor Japan recognizes them as citizens. Furthermore, Japan’s complex family …
Reproductive Justice Begins With Contraceptive Access In The Philippines, Elisabeth S. Smith
Reproductive Justice Begins With Contraceptive Access In The Philippines, Elisabeth S. Smith
Washington International Law Journal
Restrictive Philippine laws and a lack of public funding have limited Filipinos’ access to modern contraception, resulting in high maternal mortality rates, high birth rates, unmet needs for family planning, and health disparities between the lowest-income and wealthier women. Following the 1991 decentralization reforms, Local Government Units plan, administer, and fund most Philippine health services. In the context of reproductive healthcare, decentralization has led to inequality, inadequate financing, successful opposition to contraception by the Catholic Church, and a lack of clear national standards. After a fourteen-year legislative struggle, on December 21, 2012, President Aquino signed “The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive …
Fatal Flaws: New Zealand's Human Tissue Act Fails To Provide An Avenue For Individuals To Give Legally Binding Informed Consent, Jennifer J. Howard
Fatal Flaws: New Zealand's Human Tissue Act Fails To Provide An Avenue For Individuals To Give Legally Binding Informed Consent, Jennifer J. Howard
Washington International Law Journal
Improving the worldwide organ transplantation rate is an important goal for the world health community. Thousands of people die each year waiting for organs that would save their lives. New Zealand has one of the poorest rates of transplantation in the Western world. In 2008, New Zealand passed the Human Tissue Act in an attempt to improve the number of donors and ultimately increase the number of transplants performed. To promote the autonomy of individuals, the new law prioritized who can give informed consent for organ donation upon death, with individuals’ actions and intentions being paramount. The law allows individuals …
Patent Protection Of Medical Records—Focusing On Ethical Issues, Yūsuke Satō, Jiameng Kathy Liu
Patent Protection Of Medical Records—Focusing On Ethical Issues, Yūsuke Satō, Jiameng Kathy Liu
Washington International Law Journal
The following is a translation of “Patent Protection of Medical Methods—Focusing on Ethical Issues,” an article written by Professor Yūsuke Satō in the June 2007 issue of the Japanese periodical Annual of Industrial Property Law. In Japan, despite the lack of an explicit statutory prohibition, methods of medical treatment have never been patentable. The Japan Patent Office (“JPO”) has rejected patenting medical processes on ethical grounds, interpreting that they do not fulfill the statutory requirement of “industrial applicability” in the main sentence of Article 29, Section 1 of the Patent Act, and courts have been confirming this practice. In light …
Redefining Motherhood: Discrimination In Legal Parenthood In Japan, Rachel Brehm King
Redefining Motherhood: Discrimination In Legal Parenthood In Japan, Rachel Brehm King
Washington International Law Journal
Due to Japan’s decreasing population numbers and low birth rate, the country’s legal forces and social norms put tremendous pressure on women to have children. To meet these expectations, Japanese women frequently turn to new forms of medical assistance called Assisted Reproductive Technology (“ART”) to increase their ability to become mothers. ART includes such procedures as artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy. Although several of these methods are accepted by Japanese law and society, other forms of ART, including certain forms of artificial insemination and surrogacy, are strongly disapproved. Japan’s current legal framework prevents women from accessing the full …
Protecting Egg Donors And Human Embryos—The Failure Of The South Korean Bioethics And Biosafety Act, Mukta Jhalani
Protecting Egg Donors And Human Embryos—The Failure Of The South Korean Bioethics And Biosafety Act, Mukta Jhalani
Washington International Law Journal
Human embryonic stem cells have the potential to treat many physical and neurological disorders due to their unique ability to transform into any type of human cell. The process of deriving stem cells from human embryos, however, raises important ethical and regulatory issues. Embryonic stem cell research requires a steady source of human eggs to create embryos that are destroyed during stem cell extraction. International declarations and guidelines protect the two most vulnerable participants of embryonic stem cell research: women who donate eggs for research purposes and human embryos that are destroyed in the research. In 2005, South Korea passed …
The Need For Effective Licensure Laws For Mid-Level Health Care Providers In Countries Facing Chronic Physician Shortages: A Case Study Of The Marshall Islands' Health Assistants, Jeffrey P. Lane
Washington International Law Journal
Facing a global physician shortage and high international emigration rates, developing countries are increasingly looking to mid-level health care providers to provide critical primary health care services. Mid-level providers have more training than nurses but less than full physicians and are typically authorized to prescribe medications and perform simple medical procedures. As the demand for health care providers continues to grow, mid-level providers are increasingly being asked to provide a broader array of clinical services. In response to this growing need, mid-level providers are increasingly practicing outside of their licensed scope of practice, which may both compromise patient safety and …
Toward A Legislative Solution To The Growing Hiv/Aids Epidemic In Russia: A Case For Expanded Health Privacy, Carrie C. Gage
Toward A Legislative Solution To The Growing Hiv/Aids Epidemic In Russia: A Case For Expanded Health Privacy, Carrie C. Gage
Washington International Law Journal
The Russian Federation faces one of the fastest growing rates of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (“HIV”) infection in the world. In 1995, Russia adopted comprehensive legislation addressing HIV and the disease caused by this virus, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (“AIDS”). The legislation prohibited discrimination based on HIV infection and provided access to medical care for people living with HIV/AIDS. Having recognized that Injecting Drug Users involved in sex work will likely act as a bridge to the general population, the Russian government has recently taken greater steps to curb transmission. Russia has moved to decriminalize the distribution of hypodermic needles for …
A Condom Versus The Philippine Aids Prevention And Control Act Of 1998: Which Has Holes Leaving Filipinos Unprotected?, David M. Iseminger
A Condom Versus The Philippine Aids Prevention And Control Act Of 1998: Which Has Holes Leaving Filipinos Unprotected?, David M. Iseminger
Washington International Law Journal
In 1998, the Philippine legislature passed pioneering HIV/AIDS legislation in Southeast Asia called the AIDS Prevention and Control Act (“APCA” or “Act”). This comprehensive legislation sought, in part, to ensure access to health care information and to stop the spread of diseases like HIV/AIDS. Regulations were promulgated by the Philippine National AIDS Council in 1999 to implement the Act. APCA effectively addresses several important HIV/AIDS issues, including prohibiting discrimination and mandatory HIV testing, while ensuring access to basic health care. However, both the regulations and the Act fail to ensure that all scientifically accurate information regarding HIV/AIDS prevention reaches Filipinos. …
Aids Prevention And The Right To Health Under International Law: Burma As The Hard Case, Rhianna M. Fronapfel
Aids Prevention And The Right To Health Under International Law: Burma As The Hard Case, Rhianna M. Fronapfel
Washington International Law Journal
Many commentators suggest that states have a human rights obligation to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS within their borders. Specifically, state HIV/AIDS prevention obligations are often premised on the “right to health” contained within many international human rights documents. Other approaches encourage states to implement AIDS prevention measures by emphasizing the detrimental effects of AIDS on economies and national and international security instead. Many commentators who adhere to the health-and-human-rights model, however, reject such other approaches as overly concerned with the interests of developed countries and lacking the ethical focus that underlies health and human rights. Implicit in such arguments …
Form Over Substance: The Inadequacy Of Informed Consent And Ethical Review For Thai Injection Drug Users Enrolled In Hiv Vaccine Trials, Joan M. Doherty
Form Over Substance: The Inadequacy Of Informed Consent And Ethical Review For Thai Injection Drug Users Enrolled In Hiv Vaccine Trials, Joan M. Doherty
Washington International Law Journal
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (“AIDS”) has emerged as a health issue of global significance, and clinical research on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (“HIV”) and AIDS has become increasingly international in scope. A clinical trial of a vaccine designed to prevent the spread of the HIV raises important legal and ethical questions because injection drug users who were believed to be unsuitable subjects for study in the United States were singled out for research in Thailand. The protections for human subjects must not be compromised when U.S. pharmaceutical companies conduct research abroad, particularly where clinical trials are conducted in vulnerable populations. U.S. …
The Use Of Tandem Mass Spectrometry In Newborn Screening: Australia's Experience And Its Implications For United States Policy, Lauren E. Fisher
The Use Of Tandem Mass Spectrometry In Newborn Screening: Australia's Experience And Its Implications For United States Policy, Lauren E. Fisher
Washington International Law Journal
In recent years, the United States has drastically increased the number of disorders screened through its newborn screening programs. This increase is made possible by the adoption of new a technology, the tandem mass spectrometer (“MS/MS”), which allows screening of up to thirty disorders from a single drop of a newborn’s blood. However, such rapid expansion of screening raises concerns regarding the purpose of the screening, as well as the current practices in place for obtaining informed consent. Similar expansion in Australia provides a model of one approach to address these difficult questions. As the first country to begin using …
Bartering With A Nation's Health Or Improving Access To Pharmaceuticals? The United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement, Katherine M. Van Maren
Bartering With A Nation's Health Or Improving Access To Pharmaceuticals? The United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement, Katherine M. Van Maren
Washington International Law Journal
Providing access to affordable medicines and rewarding innovation produces a difficult tension in the global economy. Different nations deal with this tension differently, as illustrated by the United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement ("U.S.-Australia FTA") negotiations. Both nations stood to benefit greatly from reduced or eliminated tariffs. During negotiations, both nations sought to capitalize on the opportunity to alter certain practices that hindered trade. One such practice was Australia's fifty-five-year-old Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme ("PBS"). The PBS controls prices for most medicines within Australia. Australian consumers are concerned that the U.S.-Australia FTA will adversely affect access to affordable medicines because free trade …
Regulation Of Stem Cell Research: A Recommendation That The United States Adopt The Australian Approach, Bryn E. Floyd
Regulation Of Stem Cell Research: A Recommendation That The United States Adopt The Australian Approach, Bryn E. Floyd
Washington International Law Journal
Research using embryonic stem cells may lead to great medical advances because of their ability to differentiate into nearly any type of human tissue. Currently, the United States regulates embryonic stem cell research by limiting the stem cell lines that can be studied using federal money or by scientists working at federally-funded institutions. The states are left to regulate privately funded research, if they choose. This creates a situation in which federally-funded research is severely limited, while private funds may be used to conduct ethically problematic research. In contrast, the Australian Parliament has passed legislation regulating embryonic stem cell research …
Ethical And Legal Issues In Singapore Biomedical Research, Taiwo A. Oriola
Ethical And Legal Issues In Singapore Biomedical Research, Taiwo A. Oriola
Washington International Law Journal
In 2000, Singapore established the national "Bioethics Advisory Committee" to examine the ethical, moral, social, and legal implications of life sciences and biotechnology. The Committee will examine numerous topics, including genetic discrimination, cloning, and stem cell research. The Committee is expected to release its frast set of recommendations concerning stem cell research in the first half of 2002. This paper proposes that leveraging Singapore into a world-class biomedical research center will entail synchronizing the relevant areas of its legal ethics infrastructure and culture with that of the major players in the global biotechnology industry. Conversely, adhering to prevailing local ethical …
Chinese Regulation Of Traditional Chinese Medicine In The Modern World: Can The Chinese Effectively Profit From One Of Their Most Valuable Cultural Resources?, Teresa Schroeder
Chinese Regulation Of Traditional Chinese Medicine In The Modern World: Can The Chinese Effectively Profit From One Of Their Most Valuable Cultural Resources?, Teresa Schroeder
Washington International Law Journal
The global demand for traditional Chinese medicine ("TCM") has exploded in the last thirty years. Demand for TCM products increased both domestically in the People's Republic of China ("PRC") and internationally. However, the stigma of "witch doctoring" associated with TCM remains. Several developed nations have established national and local regulation of TCM practitioners to protect their citizens from dangerous treatments. After almost forty years of virtually unregulated endorsement of TCM, China recently began its own standardization of TCM products and practice. The question must be asked, what inspired such a dramatic and rapid change in Chinese policy? The geyser of …
Demographic Crisis In Japan: Why Japan Might Open Its Doors To Foreign Home Health-Care Aides, Carmel A. Morgan
Demographic Crisis In Japan: Why Japan Might Open Its Doors To Foreign Home Health-Care Aides, Carmel A. Morgan
Washington International Law Journal
Japan is currently facing a two-fold demographic crisis: its birthrate is rapidly falling and its population is rapidly aging. Despite the present recession, Japan is confronting a significant shortage of workers in the health-care field. There may not be enough home health-care aides to meet the needs of all of the elderly who are eligible for visits under Japan's new long-term care insurance program. The Ministry of Justice has recently proposed allowing more foreigners to work in Japan. The proposal encourages the admission of immigrants to work as "home helpers," an occupation that is considered unskilled. This proposal marks a …
Legalization Of The Birth Control Pill In Japan Will Reduce Reliance On Abortion As The Primary Method Of Birth Control, Evy F. Mcelmeel
Legalization Of The Birth Control Pill In Japan Will Reduce Reliance On Abortion As The Primary Method Of Birth Control, Evy F. Mcelmeel
Washington International Law Journal
The United Nations has decreed that access to a variety of methods of birth control is a basic human right, that prevention of pregnancy, not termination, is the goal of birth control, and that abortion is an unacceptable method of birth control. Until recently, condoms and the rhythm method were the only legal forms of contraception in Japan. The high failure rates of these methods, coupled with access to abortion on demand, made abortion the de facto primary method of birth control in Japan. The Japanese government's recent decision to end the ban on oral contraceptives will reduce the number …
The Hiv Litigation And Its Settlement [In Japan], Awaji Takehisa, Keisuke Mark Abe
The Hiv Litigation And Its Settlement [In Japan], Awaji Takehisa, Keisuke Mark Abe
Washington International Law Journal
As early as 1983, Japan's Health and Welfare Ministry had reason to know that the use of unheated blood products by hemophiliacs was infecting them with HIV, the AIDS virus. Although heated-and safe-blood products were already available from the United States, government approval in Japan was deliberately delayed for almost three years while local pharmaceutical companies developed the products. By the time the unheated blood products were all withdrawn from the market, many of Japan's hemophiliacs had contracted HIV. A number of them, or their survivors, sued the government and the pharmaceutical companies. At the end of the consolidated trials, …
Patent Term Extension Of Pharmaceuticals In Japan: So You Say You Want To Rush That Generic Drug To Market In Japan . . . Good Luck!, William T. Christiansen Ii
Patent Term Extension Of Pharmaceuticals In Japan: So You Say You Want To Rush That Generic Drug To Market In Japan . . . Good Luck!, William T. Christiansen Ii
Washington International Law Journal
With the passage of the Drug Price Competition Act of 1984 in the United States, the recent German Supreme Court decision allowing for experimental use of patented pharmaceuticals, and indirectly through the adoption of the Supplemental Protection Certificate in Europe, Japan seems to be the lone large pharmaceutical market which does not allow in some way for the experimental use of patented drugs to gain regulatory approval for a generic equivalent. Japanese generic pharmaceutical manufacturers had, until recently, operated under the assumption that the testing of a generic equivalent to a patented drug to gain regulatory approval was allowable as …
The Sanctity Of Life And The Right To Die: Social And Jurisprudential Aspects Of The Euthanasia Debate In Australia And The United States, Roger S. Magnusson
The Sanctity Of Life And The Right To Die: Social And Jurisprudential Aspects Of The Euthanasia Debate In Australia And The United States, Roger S. Magnusson
Washington International Law Journal
This paper reviews social and legal issues in the current euthanasia debate. Focusing on Australia and the United States, the author argues that the legalization of physician-assisted suicide ("PAS") and/or active voluntary euthanasia ("AVE") is inevitable within the short to medium term, given recent developments which have undermined the sanctity of life ethic. Legal factors supporting this assessment include the changing definition of death, the growth of a legallyrecognized right to self-determination extending to the withdrawal of life-support, and the recognition by some courts that life support may be withdrawn without consent because life is considered to be futile. The …