Law Commons^™

Protecting Health Information Privacy: The Case For Self-Regulation Of Electronically Held Medical Records, Catherine L. Glenn

Vanderbilt Law Review

Advances in technology have given new life to debates concerning privacy.' Specifically, issues surrounding increased access to personal medical records have recently garnered attention. On one side of the debate, healthcare providers and insurers support expanded access to medical records for treatment, research, and insurance claims purposes. At the same time, however, many patients legitimately expect their medical records to remain private. The advent of Internet access to patient records and electronic medical insurance claims submissions has heightened patients' concerns that computerized medical records will offer less protection and more potential for unauthorized disclosure than paper files in locked cabinets. …

Final Exit: Should The Double Effect Rule Regarding The Legality Of Euthanasia In The United Kingdom Be Laid To Rest?, Brendan A. Thompson

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Note explores the double effect rule that currently governs physician-assisted suicide cases in the United Kingdom. Recent events in the British medical and legal community have raised serious questions about the rule's adequacy, and have arguably created an environment in which Parliament must reexamine the validity of both the double effect rule and the laws governing active euthanasia.

After providing some historical background regarding the origins and development of the double effect rule, this Note surveys recent developments such as changing attitudes towards euthanasia and the public reaction to the Moor verdict, both of which have created an environment …

An End To Insanity: Recasting The Role Of Mental Disability In Criminal Cases, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article argues that mental illness should no longer be the basis for a special defense of insanity. Instead, mental disorder should be considered in criminal cases only if relevant to other excuse doctrines, such as lack of mens rea, self-defense and duress, as those defenses have been defined under modern subjectively-oriented codes. With the advent of these subjectively defined doctrines (a development which, ironically, took place during the same period that insanity formulations expanded), the insanity defense has outlived its usefulness, normatively and practically. Modern official formulations of the defense are overbroad because, fairly construed, they exculpate the vast …

The Criminal Defense Lawyer's Fiduciary Duty To Clients With Mental Disability, Christopher Slobogin, Amy Mashburn

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article has argued that the defense attorney has a multifaceted fiduciary duty toward the client with mental disability. That duty requires, first and foremost, respect for the autonomy of the client. The lawyer shows that respect not only by heeding the wishes of the competent client but by refusing to heed the wishes of the incompetent client. A coherent approach to the competency construct is therefore important. Following the lead of Professor Bonnie, this Article has broken competency into two components: assistance competency and decisional competency. It has defined the former concept in traditional terms, as an understanding of …

Doubts About Daubert: Psychiatric Anecdata As A Case Study, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Supreme Court sensibly held that testimony purporting to be scientific is admissible only if it possesses sufficient indicia of scientific validity. In Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, the Court more questionably held that opinion evidence based on "technical" and "specialized" knowledge must meet the same admissibility threshold as scientific testimony. This Article addresses the implications of these two decisions for opinion evidence presented by mental health professionals in criminal trials.

Health Care Reform Through Medicaid Managed Care: Tennessee (Tenncare) As A Case Study And A Paradigm, James F. Blumstein, Frank A. Sloan

Vanderbilt Law Review

TennCare is a Medicaid demonstration project that allows Tennessee to require all Medicaid beneficiaries to secure medical care through a mandatory managed care system. Enrollees contract with private managed care organizations ("MCOs'), which are responsible for organizing a network of care providers and delivering medical care to covered beneficiaries. Driven by rapidly escalating Medicaid costs, TennCare's mandatory managed care program has succeeded in saving money for the state in its Medicaid program. To secure the federal waiver that allowed the program to proceed, the state included non-Medicaid-eligible uninsured and uninsurable residents as TennCare beneficiaries. Federal matching funds accrue for all …