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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Laws Of Genetics, Michael S. Baram May 1997

The Laws Of Genetics, Michael S. Baram

Faculty Scholarship

It used to be that high technology meant nuclear physics and missile systems, and presented the threat of physical destruction. Today, "high tech" means biotechnology and electronic communication systems, and the focus has shifted to concerns about more subtle problems like loss of privacy, inability to control personal information, and the discriminations and other adversities that often follow.


The Bell Tolls For A Constitutional Right To Physician-Assisted Suicide, George J. Annas Jan 1997

The Bell Tolls For A Constitutional Right To Physician-Assisted Suicide, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway's novel about the Spanish Civil War, ends with its American hero, Robert Jordan, mortally wounded and trying to decide whether to commit suicide with a machine gun or risk capture by trying to retain consciousness long enough to cover the retreat of his comrades. Confronting his impending death, Jordan thinks, “Dying is only bad when it takes a long time and hurts so much that it humiliates you.” Hemingway, one of the most American of American writers, committed suicide with a shotgun. Most suicides in the United States are committed with guns, but …


Patients' Rights In Managed Care - Exit, Voice, And Choice, George J. Annas Jan 1997

Patients' Rights In Managed Care - Exit, Voice, And Choice, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

The ability of consumers to complain effectively about services and products is a key ingredient of the market. In Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, economist Albert O. Hirschman argues that the ability to take one's business elsewhere may not be enough to empower consumers in markets where all providers act similarly. Instead of simply going elsewhere, consumers need to have an effective way to voice their complaints, in order to give providers an incentive to be more responsive to consumers' interests. Marc Rodwin has suggested that the Hirschman analysis may be particularly relevant to members of managed-care organizations and ``individuals with …


Reefer Madness: The Federal Response To California's Medical-Marijuana Law, George J. Annas Jan 1997

Reefer Madness: The Federal Response To California's Medical-Marijuana Law, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Marijuana is unique among illegal drugs in its political symbolism, its safety, and its wide use. More than 65 million Americans have tried marijuana, the use of which is not associated with increased mortality. Since the federal government first tried to tax it out of existence in 1937, at least partly in response to the 1936 film Reefer Madness, marijuana has remained at the center of controversy. Now physicians are becoming more actively involved. Most recently, the federal drug policy against any use of marijuana has been challenged by California's attempt to legalize its use by certain patients on the …


Tobacco Litigation As Cancer Prevention: Dealing With The Devil, George J. Annas Jan 1997

Tobacco Litigation As Cancer Prevention: Dealing With The Devil, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Tobacco companies have come to personify the devil, and strategies to exorcise tobacco smoking from the United States proliferate. Tobacco's demonic status is even reflected in popular fiction. John Grisham's latest bestseller, The Runaway Jury, for example, is a broadside attack on tobacco companies. He opens the book by noting that tobacco companies “had been thoroughly isolated and vilified by consumer groups, doctors, even politicians.” This was bad, but it was getting even worse: “Now the lawyers were after them.”


Medical Discipline In The 21st Century: Can Purchasers Do It?, Frances H. Miller Jan 1997

Medical Discipline In The 21st Century: Can Purchasers Do It?, Frances H. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

Millenia prompt reflection about change, both past and future. Tons of newsprint have already been devoted to documenting the astonishing developments in medicine during the past century, and to speculating about what breakthroughs to expect in the next one.1 Health economists generally accept that these changes, particularly advances in technology, have been the dominant factor propelling U.S. health care costs into the stratosphere over the past hundred years.' Analysts by the score have also examined the myriad ways in which this nation's health care delivery system has been (and must continue to be) transformed to cope with these expensive …