Law Commons^™

Organophosphates, Friend And Foe: The Promise Of Medical Monitoring For Farm Workers And Their Families, Adriane J. Busby, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

Millions of farm workers nation-wide who load, mix and/or apply pesticides are exposed to incredible amounts of pesticides on a daily basis. Various inefficiencies and inconsistencies in the regulatory system - including insufficient illness reporting data systems, lack of regulatory compliance and enforcement, and inadequate data and information on the chronic effects of exposure and overexposure to various pesticides - increase the likelihood that these workers will continue to be exposed to dangerous amounts of pesticides.

This Article assesses the existing mechanisms designed to protect farm workers from occupational exposure to pesticides and identifies and analyzes some of the shortcomings …

Pandemic Preparedness: A Return To The Rule Of Law, Wendy K. Mariner, George J. Annas, Wendy E. Parmet

Faculty Scholarship

Current discussions of pandemic influenza and emergency preparedness would do well to heed the lessons of US Airways flight 1549, which landed in the Hudson River in January 2009. This article examines what past emergencies teach us about how to prevent or control epidemics and argues that it is time for a return to the rule of law in pandemic preparedness. The most important resource in emergency preparedness is a healthy, resilient population, which depends importantly on sustainable systems of medical care and public health. Preparedness thus requires more money than law. After September 11, 2001, however, federal emergency preparedness …

Over Under Or Through: Physicians, Law, And Health Care Reform, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

My purpose in this commentary is twofold. First, I want to offer a few thoughts on why the American medical profession sometimes has a hard time accepting law on its own terms. Second, I want to suggest that even “good law” from the perspective of the medical profession—should it overcome its habits of resistance—may still be bad health policy for the United States.

Creating A Paternalistic Market For Legal Rules Affecting The Benefit Promise, Brendan S. Maher

Faculty Scholarship

Notwithstanding the fact that ERISA was enacted to protect employee benefits, courts have narrowly construed the relief available when benefits are denied, out of concern that a stronger remedy would be too costly for the system to bear. Judges, I argue, are ill-equipped to make this policy judgment. Instead, a regulated, subsidized, paternalistic market should be created to permit the benefit players themselves to choose and price the strength of the remedy they desire. This is a superior means to reach the right level of remedial strength for the most players. To protect against undesirably weak remedial options being selected, …

Solidarity: Unfashionable, But Still American, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

Illness, we are often told, is a private matter. Accordingly, none must interfere in the medical decisions that emerge from the confidential relationship be- tween physician and patient. Yet evidence of interdependence is ubiquitous in health care. One person’s malady can harm families, workplaces, clubs, churches, and sometimes entire communities. Similarly, a suffering pa- tient must rely on many individuals, associational groups, corporate entities, and government agencies for support and assistance. It is, therefore, unsurprising that various social units claim an interest and a voice in maintaining health and treating disease.

However, explicit solidarity has long been out of vogue …

Enhancing The Fighting Force: Medical Research On American Soldiers, Catherine L. Annas, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

During President Barack Obama's first primetime press conference, reporters asked primarily about the state of the economy and terrorism. Wedged between questions on these two vital issues was a query from the Washington Post's Michael Fletcher:

Question: What is your reaction to Alex Rodriguez's admission that he used steroids as a member of the Texas Rangers?

Obama: You know, I think it's depressing news.... And if you're a fan of Major League Baseball, I think it - it tarnishes an entire era, to some degree. And it's unfortunate, because I think there are a lot of ballplayers who played it …

Pick Your Poison: Responses To The Marketing And Sale Of Flavored Tobacco Products, Kathleen Hoke Dachille

Faculty Scholarship

This law synopsis explores legal approaches for addressing the marketing and sale of flavored tobacco products to youth.

Out Of The Box: The Future Of Retail Medical Clinics, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

The 2000s was mostly a lost decade for reform of the health care delivery system. Among the few significant innovations was the retail medical clinic, where individuals could receive basic health care at posted prices without appointments, typically from nurse practitioners or physician assistants. Most retail clinics were associated with chain drugstores, supermarkets, or other "big box" retailers. This short article describes the implications of the retail clinic model for US health policy and health care reform. It is no longer available from the online journal in which it originally appeared.

Prosecuting Doctors For Trusting Patients, Deborah Hellman

Faculty Scholarship

In an escalating phase of our country’s war on drugs, doctors treating patients in pain are being prosecuted for drug trafficking under the Controlled Substances Act. While doctors surely can be guilty of drug trafficking when they sell drugs for money, lately some doctors have been prosecuted for violations of a statute that requires knowingly distributing or dispensing controlled substances in an unauthorized manner for simply being willfully blind to the fact that their patients were reselling the drugs. While willful blindness may be an apt substitute for knowledge in the traditional drug courier scenario, doctors in these cases are …

Physicians Who Break The Law, Diane E. Hoffmann

Faculty Scholarship

This paper takes as its starting point a recent article by Prof. Sandra Johnson, Regulating Physician Behavior: Taking Doctors “Bad Law” Claims Seriously. In the article, Johnson focuses on doctors who comply with the law despite their belief that the law is “bad”, i.e., causes them to behave in ways that are harmful to their patients. In Physicians Who Break the Law, I explore cases where physicians break the law claiming that it is “bad”. In this exploration, I focus on two areas of physicians’ lawbreaking: (1) violations of business-related laws, in particular, insurance fraud; and (2) violations of laws …

A Circumspect Look At Problem-Solving Courts, Richard C. Boldt

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Violence On The Brain: A Critique Of Neuroscience In Criminal Law, Amanda C. Pustilnik

Faculty Scholarship

Is there such a thing as a criminally "violent brain"? Does it make sense to speak of "the neurobiology of violence" or the "psychopathology of crime"? Is it possible to answer on a physiological level what makes one person engage in criminal violence and another not, under similar circumstances?

This Article first demonstrates parallels between certain current claims about the neurobiology of criminal violence and past movements that were concerned with the law and neuroscience of violence: phrenology, Lombrosian biological criminology, and lobotomy. It then engages in a substantive review and critique of several current claims about the neurological bases …

The Costs Of Multiple Gestation Pregnancies In Assisted Reproduction, Urska Velikonja

Faculty Scholarship

The United States, unlike most developed countries, does not regulate its fertility industry. Rather, it vests control over the industry to professional organizations and to market forces. While lack of regulation has produced a vibrant market for fertility services, it has also produced an undesirable consequence: a high rate of multiple gestation pregnancies, including twin pregnancies. This Article summarizes the data on the medical, psychological, and financial costs associated with multiple pregnancies to the parents, the children, and American society. It suggests that the current U.S. regulatory regime has not only failed to address these costs as they surfaced but …

Beyond Bidil: The Expanding Embrace Of Race In Biomedical Research And Product Development, Jonathan Kahn

Faculty Scholarship

In 2005 the FDA approved BiDil, the first drug ever to include a race-specific indication on its label - to treat heart failure in a “black” patient. In the aftermath of this controversial approval and subsequent marketing of the drug, many have wondered whether BiDil was an anomaly or a harbinger of things to come. This article moves beyond BiDil to explore how similar yet distinct models are developing for the continuing exploitation of race in biomedical practice and product development. It will explore the tensions embedded in the persistent use of racial categories even as specific genetic variations linked …

Kairos And Safe Havens: The Timing And Calamity Of Unwanted Birth, Susan Ayres

Faculty Scholarship

It is impossible to know the number of infants killed or illegally abandoned at birth. No official reporting requirements exist, but conservative estimates claim that in the United States, 150-300 infants are killed within twenty-four hours of life and that over 100 infants are illegally abandoned. Beginning in 1999, in an effort to stem the problem of neonaticide and illegal abandonment, states began enacting laws to legalize abandonment. By 2008, all fifty states had enacted safe haven laws, which allow parents to anonymously abandon newborns by delivering them to designated providers, such as hospitals. This article provides a practical and …

Decisional Dignity: Teenage Abortion, Bypass Hearings, And The Misuse Of Law, Carol Sanger

Faculty Scholarship

How might we think about reforming abortion regulation in a world in which the basic legality of abortion may, as a matter of constitutional law, at last be relatively secure? I have in mind the era just upon us in which the overturn of Roe v. Wadeno longer looms so threateningly over the reproductive rights community in the United States and is no longer necessarily its central concern. There is now a general and seemingly well-founded optimism that under the Obama administration, those who support and rely on reproductive rights will not have to pray nightly for the health …

Estimating The Effect Of Damages Caps In Medical Malpractice Cases: Evidence From Texas, David A. Hyman, Bernard Black, Charles Silver, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

Using claim-level data, we estimate the effect of Texas's 2003 cap on non-economic damages on jury verdicts, post-verdict payouts, and settlements in medical malpractice cases closed during 1988–2004. For pro-plaintiff jury verdicts, the cap affects 47-percent of verdicts and reduces mean allowed non-economic damages, mean allowed verdict, and mean total payout by 73-percent, 38-percent, and 27-percent, respectively. In total, the non-econ cap reduces adjusted verdicts by $156M, but predicted payouts by only $60M. The impact on payouts is smaller because a substantial portion of the above-cap damage awards were not being paid to begin with. In cases settled without trial, …

The Butterfly Effect Of Politics Over Principle: The Debate Over The Unborn Victims Of Violence Act And The Motherhood Protection Act, Robert E. Steinbuch

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Death From The Public Domain?, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

In his recent article in the Texas Law Review, Ben Roin advances the claim that pharmaceutical innovation and the public’s health are harmed by the doctrines of non-obviousness and novelty. He does not mince words, labeling the nonobvious requirement as “perversity” with a “pernicious” effect on drug development. In his view, these standards pose an insurmountable barrier for drug companies seeking to commercialize inventions already in the public domain. He claims that valuable, life-saving drug ideas languish in the public domain because the companies face high barriers to entry from the FDA, but potential free riders are encouraged through the …

Why We Should Ignore The “Octomom”, Kimberly D. Krawiec

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Theorizing And Generalizing About Risk Assessment And Regulation Through Comparative Nested Analysis Of Representative Cases, Jonathan B. Wiener, Brendon Swedlow, Denise Kall, Zheng Zhou, James K. Hammitt

Faculty Scholarship

This article provides a framework and offers strategies for theorizing and generalizing about risk assessment and regulation developed in the context of an on-going comparative study of regulatory behavior. Construction of a universe of nearly 3,000 risks and study of a random sample of 100 of these risks allowed us to estimate relative U.S. and European regulatory precaution over a thirty-five-year period. Comparative nested analysis of cases selected from this universe of ecological, health, safety, and other risks or its eighteen categories or ninety-two subcategories of risk sources or causes will allow theory-testing and -building and many further descriptive and …

End-Of-Life Care: Doctors' Complaints And Legal Restraints, Robert L. Schwartz

Faculty Scholarship

Health lawyers and policymakers cannot always see the same shadows of the laws that are visible to health care providers, and sometimes those shadows have penumbras and emanations that are not visible to those outside of a narrow medical practice. Sometimes those shadows, whether real or imagined, cause doctors to act inconsistently with the intent of the law, and inconsistently with the requirements of good medical practice. Doctors may misread or misunderstand a law. Still, if the law as misread or misunderstood actually affects medical practice, we should not be blind to the fact of the misunderstanding. Listen to doctors' …

Can State Health Reform Initiatives Achieve Universal Coverage: Lessons From California’S Recent Failed Experiment, Susan A. Channick

Faculty Scholarship

This article is about the struggle toward health care reform. It looks at the mandated health care insurance model as well as the experiences of Massachusetts and California.

Surrogacy And The Politics Of Commodification, Elizabeth S. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

In 2004, the Illinois legislature passed the Gestational Surrogacy Act, which provides that a child conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and born to a surrogate mother automatically becomes the legal child of the intended parents at birth if certain conditions are met. Under the Act, the woman who bears the child has no parental status. The bill generated modest media attention, but little controversy; it passed unanimously in both houses of the legislature and was signed into law by the governor.

This mundane story of the legislative process in action stands in sharp contrast to the political tale of …

Protecting Hiv Positive Women’S Human’S Rights: Recommendations For The Obama Administration, Aziza Ahmed, Catherine Hanssens, Brook Kelly

Faculty Scholarship

To bring the United States in line with prevailing human rights standards, its National HIV/AIDS Strategy will need to explicitly commit to a human rights framework when developing programmes and policies that serve the unaddressed needs of women. This paper focuses on two aspects of the institutionalized mistreatment of people with HIV: 1) the criminalization of their consensual sexual conduct; and 2) the elimination of informed and documented consensual participation in their diagnosis through reliance on mandatory and opt-out testing policies. More than half of US states have HIV-specific laws criminalizing the consensual sexual activity of people with HIV, regardless …

Federalization Snowballs: The Need For National Action In Medical Malpractice Reform, Abigail Moncrieff

Faculty Scholarship

Because tort law generally and healthcare regulation specifically are traditional state functions and because medical, legal, and insurance practices are highly localized, legal scholars have long believed that medical malpractice falls within the states' exclusive jurisdiction and sovereignty. Indeed, this view is so widely held that modern legal scholarship takes it for granted. Articles on general federalism issues use medical malpractice as an easy example of a policy in which federal intervention lacks functional justification, and articles that focus on federalization of other tort reforms use medical malpractice as an easy foil, pointing out that the uniformity interest that justifies …

Defining Health Law Or The Edgewood Syndrome, Paula Lobato De Faria, Wendy K. Mariner, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

The authors' main purpose is to present ideas on defining Health Law by highlighting the particularities of the field of Health Law as well as of the teaching of this legal branch, hoping to contribute to the maturity and academic recognition of Health Law, not only as a very rich legal field but also as a powerful social instrument in the fulfillment of fundamental human rights. The authors defend that Health Law has several characteristics that distinguish it from traditional branches of law such as its complexity and multidisciplinary nature. The study of Health Law normally covers issues such as …

Toward An Architecture Of Health Law, Wendy K. Mariner

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines 3 questions: What is an academic field of law? Is health law such a field? If it is, how can or should it be described? The first question may have no answer; scholars and practicing lawyers have fashioned their owns spheres of expertise. Describing health law faces particular challenges, including the breadth of applicable doctrines and the decline of unique medically-oriented adaptations of general principles. The article offers a blueprint based on the health and human rights framework as a functional description of the eclectic and translegal field of health law. This approach can identify the principles …

How Medicare Could Get Better Prices On Prescription Drugs, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

Congress may reform drug pricing policies under Medicare Part D as part of a larger health reform effort. Currently, the "noninterference" provision prevents the government from negotiating drug prices on behalf of Medicare Part D prescription drug plans. Commonly considered reform proposals borrow ideas from Medicaid, either through returning dual eligibles to Medicaid drug pricing or by imposing mandatory rebates across the Part D population. We examine a menu of other options, including value-based pricing; expansion of generic and therapeutically equivalent substitution; increased formulary diversity; importation; and limited antitrust waivers. These latter options may reduce federal spending without direct government …