Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Law

Life And Death Decision-Making: Judges V. Legislators As Sources Of Law In Bioethics, Charles Baron Aug 2013

Life And Death Decision-Making: Judges V. Legislators As Sources Of Law In Bioethics, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In some situations, courts may be better sources of new law than legislatures. Some support for this proposition is provided by the performance of American courts in the development of law regarding the “right to die.” When confronted with the problems presented by mid-Twentieth Century technological advances in prolonging human life, American legislators were slow to act. It was the state common law courts, beginning with Quinlan in 1976, that took primary responsibility for gradually crafting new legal principles that excepted withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment from the application of general laws dealing with homicide and suicide. These courts, like the …


The Concept Of Person In The Law, Charles Baron Aug 2013

The Concept Of Person In The Law, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

The focus of the abortion debate in the United States tends to be on whether and at what stage a fetus is a person. I believe this tendency has been unfortunate and counterproductive. Instead of advancing dialogue between opposing sides, such a focus seems to have stunted it, leaving advocates in the sort of “I did not!” – “You did too!” impasse we remember from childhood. Also reminiscent of that childhood scene has been the vain attempt to break the impasse by appeal to a higher authority. Thus, the pro-choice forces hoped they had proved the pro-life forces “wrong” by …


Medical Paternalism And The Rule Of Law: A Reply To Dr. Relman, Charles Baron Aug 2013

Medical Paternalism And The Rule Of Law: A Reply To Dr. Relman, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

In this Article, Professor Baron challenges the position taken recently by Dr. Arnold Relman in this journal that the 1977 Saikewicz decision of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts was incorrect in calling for routine judicial resolution of decisions whether to provide life-prolonging treatment to terminally ill incompetent patients. First, Professor Baron argues that Dr. Relman's position that doctors should make such decisions is based upon an outmoded, paternalistic view of the doctor-patient relationship. Second, he points out the importance of guaranteeing to such decisions the special qualities of process which characterize decision making by courts and which are not …


Assuring "Detached But Passionate Investigation And Decision": The Role Of Guardians Ad Litem In Saikewicz-Type Cases, Charles Baron Aug 2013

Assuring "Detached But Passionate Investigation And Decision": The Role Of Guardians Ad Litem In Saikewicz-Type Cases, Charles Baron

Charles H. Baron

The author focuses this Article upon the aspect of the Saikewicz decision which determines that the kind of "proxy consent" question involved in that case required for its decision "the process of detached but passionate investigation and decision that forms the ideal on which the judicial branch of government was created." This aspect of the decision has drawn much criticism from the medical community on the ground that it embroils what doctors believe to be a medical question in the adversarial processes of the court system. The author criticizes the decision from an entirely opposite perspective, arguing that the court's …


Health Claim Regulation Of Probiotics In The Usa And The Eu: Is There A Middle Way?, Diane Hoffmann Jul 2013

Health Claim Regulation Of Probiotics In The Usa And The Eu: Is There A Middle Way?, Diane Hoffmann

Diane Hoffmann

In both the USA and Europe, supermarkets and pharmacies are brimming with probiotics—products containing live micro-organisms claiming they improve health. The availability of these products corresponds to a growing consumer demand for foods that improve or maintain health and wellness. The most persuasive include claims that consumption may confer health benefits. While some of these claims may have merit, others have not been substantiated. For a number of products, claims are based on insufficient research, underpowered studies, or mixed research results, yet individual consumers find that the product is of benefit to them. In attempting to regulate health claims, as …


Are Changes To The Common Rule Necessary To Address Evolving Areas Of Research? A Case Study Focusing On The Human Microbiome Project, Diane Hoffmann, J. Fortenberry, Jacques Ravel Jul 2013

Are Changes To The Common Rule Necessary To Address Evolving Areas Of Research? A Case Study Focusing On The Human Microbiome Project, Diane Hoffmann, J. Fortenberry, Jacques Ravel

Diane Hoffmann

This article examines ways in which research conducted under the Human Microbiome Project, an effort to establish a “reference catalogue” of the micro-organisms present in the human body and determine how changes in those micro-organisms affect health and disease, raise challenging issues for regulation of human subject research. The article focuses on issues related to subject selection and recruitment, group stigma, and informational risks, and explores whether: (1) the Common Rule or proposed changes to the Rule adequately address these issues and (2) the Common Rule is the most appropriate vehicle to provide regulatory oversight and guidance on these topics.


Moral Gridlock: Conceptual Barriers To No-Fault Compensation For Injured Research Subjects, Leslie Henry Jul 2013

Moral Gridlock: Conceptual Barriers To No-Fault Compensation For Injured Research Subjects, Leslie Henry

Leslie Meltzer Henry

The federal regulations that govern biomedical research, most notably those enshrined in the Common Rule, express a protectionist ethos aimed at safeguarding subjects of human experimentation from the potential harms of research participation. In at least one critical way, however, the regulations have always fallen short of this promise: if a subject suffers a research-related injury, then neither the investigator nor the sponsor has any legal obligation under the regulations to care for or compensate the subject. Because very few subjects with research-related injuries can meet the financial or evidentiary requirements associated with a successful legal claim to recover the …


Revising The Common Rule: Prospects And Challenges, Leslie Henry Jul 2013

Revising The Common Rule: Prospects And Challenges, Leslie Henry

Leslie Meltzer Henry

The annual Bioethics and Law Roundtable, jointly sponsored by the Law & Health Care Program at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, convened in April 2012 to address "Human Subjects Research Regulations: Proposals for Reform." This paper serves as the introduction to the seven papers presented at the symposium that discuss the prospects and challenges of revising the Common Rule.


Individual And Group Coverage Under The Aca: More Patches To The Federal-State Crazy Quilt, Mary Ann Chirba Jan 2013

Individual And Group Coverage Under The Aca: More Patches To The Federal-State Crazy Quilt, Mary Ann Chirba

Mary Ann Chirba

From the introduction: Throughout the 2012 Presidential campaign, Republican contenders criticized the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as a “federal take-over of health care” for its promotion of national uniformity in health coverage and access. Yet long before passage, the architects of the ACA quickly rejected a federal single payor system, or even a federal public plan to complement the private sector plans due to forceful opposition to national reform. Instead, they traveled the only politically viable road to reform: maintaining the fragmented and complex system of health care coverage, where federal and state governments as well as the private sector …