Law Commons^™

Missouri's Innocent Citizens: An Examination Of Missouri's Response To Domestic Violence Incidents Against Children And Teens, Keith P. Freie

Keith P Freie

In 2010 the Missouri Attorney’s General’s Office created a Domestic Violence Task Force for the purpose of analyzing Missouri’s Domestic Violence laws. In 2011, the Missouri General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 320 which included several changes to Missouri’s domestic violence laws stemming from several recommendations from the Attorney General’s Task Force. While Missouri’s 2011 domestic violence law is a comprehensive solution to the many unaddressed needs of child and teen domestic violence victims, additional solutions need to be considered to fully address the problem. Those solutions may include creating special domestic violence and child abuse courts and creating educational programs …

"Libertarian Paternalism And The Danger Of Nudging Consumers", Alberto R. Salazar V.

Alberto R. Salazar V.

Consumer law and policy have sought to protect consumers through various forms of information disclosure. This has, however, failed in several areas. A central reason for such a failure has been irrational consumer behavior. Libertarian paternalism, a currently influential view in the US and the UK, attempts to capture the many ways in which market behaviour can be irrational and suggests nudging consumers towards self-interest. This has important implications for consumer protection policies. In the area of healthy eating, rather than insisting on nutrition labeling and other legislative interventions, libertarian paternalism claims that nudging consumers towards healthy food is likely …

Relating Diagnosis-Related Groups: What Germany And The United States Can Learn From Each Other About Acute-Care Payment Systems, Timothy D. Martin

Timothy D Martin

In recent years, several countries have adopted diagnosis-related group (DRG) payment systems modeled after the system Medicare uses to reimburse providers for acute-care inpatient treatment. This paper compares the Medicare DRG system with the German DRG system and suggests improvements that might help both systems. First, Germany should proceed carefully in its attempt to reduce the length of hospital visits because its universal payment mechanism cannot shift costs to the private sector so inadequate payment could degrade the quality of care. Second, because both countries struggle with incorporating new treatments and technologies into their payment systems, they should both consider …

A Look At The Constitutional Implications Of Retrospective Laws: The Case Of The False Claims Act, Monica P. Navarro

Monica P. Navarro

The retrospective effect of the False Claims Act has triggered constitutional challenges resting on the Ex Post Facto Clause of the U.S. Constitution and dividing the courts on the outcome of the constitutional question and the applicable legal framework for resolving the issue. The article reviews the False Claims Act, as well as the legal frameworks available for resolving such a constitutional challenge.

The Change In Knowledge Proposal: Repairing Preemption Doctrine In Medical Products Liability, Yite John Lu

Yite J Lu

This Article proposes a new rule that would allow the FDA to achieve the best balance of medical product availability and safety without interference from tort law when the agency has adequately reviewed the safety science. After an analysis of the FDA’s competency to review, and manufacturers’ ability to hide, safety concerns, this Article argues that FDA review is adequate during the initial approval process, but the agency cannot adequately respond to newly acquired safety information that arises post-market. To take advantage of this finding, the change in knowledge proposal would require tort plaintiffs to show a change in the …

Smoked Success? Social, Cultural, And Legal Changes In The United States, Japan, And France Have Led To A Decline In Tobacco Use. Yet, Teenagers Refuse To Budge!, Dalila V. Hoover

Dalila V Hoover

Once considered a part of everyday life, tobacco consumption has become a global public health crisis that has transcended national borders. By the end of 2011, tobacco will have killed nearly six million people, including more than 600,000 of people exposed to tobacco smoke. If current smoking patterns continue, the toll will nearly double by 2030 with more than 8 million deaths. To safeguard the public’s health, the United States, Japan, and France have taken action to change the acceptability of smoking. Although they have adopted a different approach, they have successfully altered and redefined their cultural perception of tobacco …

Giving Life To The Dead: The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act's Impact On Freedom Of Contract As A Substantive Due Process Right, Jesse D. Kershner Mr.

Jesse D Kershner Mr.

This article examines the constitutional implications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care of 2010. Particularly, whether the substantive due process right of freedom of contract is recognized yet again as a fundamental right. This paper argues while Muller and West Coast Hotel overturned Lochner procedurally, the substance of the fundamental right concerning contracts still exists; specifically the notion that citizens have a right to be free from forced contracts.

Giving Life To The Dead: The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act's Impact On Freedom Of Contract As A Substantive Due Process Right, Jesse D. Kershner Mr.

Jesse D Kershner Mr.

This article examines the constitutional implications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care of 2010. Particularly, whether the substantive due process right of freedom of contract is recognized yet again as a fundamental right. This paper argues while Muller and West Coast Hotel overturned Lochner procedurally, the substance of the fundamental right concerning contracts still exists; specifically the notion that citizens have a right to be free from forced contracts.

New Frontiers Of Reprogenetics: Snp Profile Collection And Banking And The Resulting Duties In Medical Malpractice, Issues In Property Rights Of Genetic Materials, And Liabilities In Genetic Privacy., Stephanie Sgambati

Stephanie Sgambati

ABSTRACT

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) represent the portions of our genetic makeup where human differ from each other. Mapping an individual’s profile creates a DNA fingerprint entirely unique to that individual. The primary purpose for the creation of SNP profiles has been validation of medical techniques used in reproductive medicine that require researchers to be able to definitively determine which embryo makes which baby- thus matching DNA fingerprints from infants to those from embryos. In spite of this seemingly narrow use, the potential value of the information contained in the SNP profile is enormous.

In this paper, I explore how …

Canned For Medical Cannabis: Terminating Employees For Lawful, At-Home Use Of Medical Cannabis For Palliative Care Amounts To Disability Discrimination And Chills Their Liberty Interest To Pain Relief, Elizabeth M. Votra

Elizabeth M Votra

Although qualified California citizens may lawfully use medical cannabis, there are no protective regulations in the employment arena for those who are medical cannabis patients. Upon examination of the California Supreme Court case Ross v. RagingWire Telecommunications (medical cannabis patients cannot succeed on grounds of wrongful termination claims when fired for their at-home use of medical cannabis) and the United States Supreme Court case Washington v. Glucksberg (deeply rooted liberty interests in pain relief qualify for protection), I show that there is a disconnect between what the voters clearly wanted-as described in the Compassionate Use Act-and the current state of …

Federalizing Embryo Transfers: Taming The Wild West Of Reproductive Medicine?, Judith F. Daar

Judith F Daar

This article addresses the oft-spoken urban myth that the field of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is a wholly unregulated medical subspecialty, leaving cowboy physicians to abuse vulnerable patients and disregard the well-being of ART-induced offspring. The birth of octoplets in January 2009 fueled this myth and launched a campaign to regulate the field by restricting the number of embryos allowable for transfer in any single IVF cycle. This article critiques the merits of a federal law codifying embryo transfer limits in the provision of infertility care. Drafting a federal embryo transfer law is easy enough, but assuring enforcement by regulators …

Catching Flies With Vinegar: A Critique Of The Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Self-Disclosure Program, Jean W. Veilleux Prof.

Jean W Veilleux Prof.

The article argues that the current approach of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to enforcement of the Ethics in Patient Referrals Act (the “Stark Law”) is unnecessarily punitive and discourages health care providers from self-disclosing even very minor violations of the Stark Law. The article suggests a number of specific changes to encourage provider self-disclosure and proposes that CMS create a demonstration project under the authority of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to test the reforms. A demonstration project provides the perfect vehicle to prove that increased …

Catching Flies With Vinegar: A Critique Of The Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Self-Disclosure Program, Jean W. Veilleux Prof.

Jean W Veilleux Prof.

The article argues that the current approach of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to enforcement of the Ethics in Patient Referrals Act (the “Stark Law”) is unnecessarily punitive and discourages health care providers from self-disclosing even very minor violations of the Stark Law. The article suggests a number of specific changes to encourage provider self-disclosure and proposes that CMS create a demonstration project under the authority of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to test the reforms. A demonstration project provides the perfect vehicle to prove that increased …

Federalizing Embryo Transfers: Taming The Wild West Of Reproductive Medicine?, Judith F. Daar

Judith F Daar

This article addresses the oft-spoken urban myth that the provision of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is a wholly unregulated medical subspecialty, leaving cowboy physicians to abuse vulnerable patients and disregard the well-being of ART-induced offspring. The birth of octoplets in January 2009 fueled this myth and launched a campaign to regulate the field by restricting the number of embryos allowable for transfer in any single IVF cycle. This article critiques the merits of a federal law codifying embryo transfer limits in the provision of infertility care. Drafting a federal embryo transfer law is easy enough, but assuring enforcement by regulators …

Competing Stories: A Case Study Of The Role Of Narrative Reasoning In Judicial Decisions, Kenneth D. Chestek

Kenneth D. Chestek

Abstract:

Within minutes after President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (derisively referred to by some as the “Obamacare” law), the lawsuits started flying. Literally dozens of suits were filed all across the country. Some were frivolous, but many others raised serious issues of federalism and the reach of Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause.

Of the initial spate of lawsuits, ultimately five were decided by various trial courts on the merits of the Commerce Clause issue. Three judges found the law constitutional, and two others found it unconstitutional. But since the issue is almost …

Safeguarding The Safeguards: The Extension Of Structural Protection To Non-Fundamental Liberties, Abigail R. Moncrieff

Abigail R. Moncrieff

As the lawsuits challenging the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) have evolved, one feature of the litigation has proven especially rankling to the legal academy: the incorporation of substantive libertarian concerns into the structural federalism analysis. The breadth and depth of scholarly criticism is surprising, however, given that judges frequently choose indirect methods, including structural and process-based methods of the kinds at issue in the ACA litigation, for protecting substantive constitutional values. Indeed, indirection in the protection of constitutional liberties is a well-known and well-theorized strategy, which one scholar recently termed “semisubstantive review” and another recently theorized as …

Coding For Life--Should Any Entity Have The Exclusive Right To Use And Sell Isolated Dna, Douglas L. Rogers

Douglas L. Rogers

Myriad Genetics, Inc. ("Myriad") obtained patents in the 1990's on two "isolated" human breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility genes ("BRCA"). Myriad did not list all the isolated sequences it claims to have a right to monopolize, but instead claims a patent on the physical phenomena itself -- all DNA segments that code for the BRCA1 polypeptide, even the sequences Myriad has not identified and even someone else in the future creates or isolates the sequences through a method or methods not contemplated by Myriad.

An impressive array of non-profit medical societies, doctors and patients sued to have the Myriad patents …

Aligning Physician Decision-Making With The Goals Of Hcos, Edward Correia

Edward Correia

Abstract: In order to achieve efficiency in the delivery of health care services, it is essential to more closely align the behavior of physicians with the goals of the Health Care organization with which they are affiliated. Achieving alignment presents a number of challenges, including legal constraints, a long tradition of physician independent, an tendency for physicians to become involved in procurement decisions, and a scarcity of comparative effectiveness data that could serve as a basis for treatment protocols and purchasing decisions. The article discusses these challenges and suggests some partial solutions. In addition, it compares the incentives that affect …

Safeguarding The Safeguards: The Aca Litigation And The Extension Of Structural Protection To Non-Fundamental Liberties, Abigail R. Moncrieff

Abigail R. Moncrieff

This article confronts and challenges an emerging scholarly consensus that criticizes the hybridization of substantive and structural arguments in the litigation over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Although there is no doubt that the ACA plaintiffs have requested and the ACA judges have provided a hybrid substantive-structural holding, there is nothing at all unusual about this indirect strategy for protecting constitutional liberty interests; it is a well-known and well-theorized strategy, which one scholar recently termed “semisubstantive review.” The article considers three possible distinctions between the ACA case and the ordinary case of semisubstantive review, and concludes that …

Be Fruitful And Multiply, By Any Means Necessary: The Time Has Come To Recognize And Enforce Gestational Surrogacy Agreements, Paul G. Arshagouni

Paul G Arshagouni

The practice of surrogacy, when one woman carries a child to term on behalf of someone else, has been with us for millennia, with early references found in Greek mythology and the Bible. With the advent of in vitro fertilization just over years 30 ago, surrogacy became option for couples and individuals who could not carry a child to term but did not want to pursue adoption. In the early days of modern surrogacy, states had little or no statutes or case law giving guidance as to the enforceability of surrogacy agreements. That changed with the seminal cases of Baby …

Over My Dead Body: The Right To Posthumous Bodily Integrity And Implications Of Whose Right It Is, Hilary Young

Hilary Young

This article examines laws that allow people to decide what will happen to their bodies after death, referred to as laws protecting posthumous bodily integrity. It asks whose rights they intend to protect: the rights-holders could consist only of living individuals whose bodies will become the corpses at issue or could include the dead themselves. Whether rights to posthumous bodily integrity belong only to the living or survive death leads to three types of insight. First, the reasons for protecting posthumous bodily integrity are different depending on who the rights-bearers are. Second, to the extent that some laws are more …

Gray Matters: Autism, Impairment, And The End Of Binaries, Kevin M. Barry

Kevin M Barry

First diagnosed by psychiatrist Leo Kanner in 1943, Autism has exploded into the public consciousness in recent years. From science to science fiction, academia to popular culture, Autism has captured the world’s attention and imagination. Autism has also ignited a fierce debate among stakeholders who seek to define its essence. Many parents of Autistic children regard Autism as a scourge and press for a cure. The Neurodiversity Movement, comprised mostly of Autistic adults, regards Autism as a different way of being worthy of respect and even celebration. The Autism war is well underway and, given Autism’s swelling ranks and proposed …

Suicide Killing Of Human Life As Human Right - The Continuing Devolution Of Assisted Suicide Law In The United Kingdom, William Wagner

William Wagner

SUICIDE KILLING OF HUMAN LIFE AS A HUMAN RIGHT

The Continuing Devolution of Assisted Suicide Law

in the United Kingdom

PROF. WILLIAM WAGNER, PROF. JOHN KANE, AND STEPHEN P. KALLMAN

ABSTRACT

Since the beginning of time, divine, natural, and positive law traditions of the United Kingdom reflected an inviolable standard that people should not assist in the killing of human life. This article reviews and analyzes the ancient inviolable benchmark, explaining why the common and statutory law of Britain historically reflected its moral reference point to prohibit assisted suicide. We then proceed to analyze a contemporary jurisprudential shift in Britain’s …

Arbitration Agreements Used By Nursing Homes: An Empirical Study And Critique Of At&T Mobility V. Concepcion, Lisa Tripp

Lisa Tripp

Although the health care industry had historically been one of the fields that had not embraced pre-dispute binding arbitration agreements, that reluctance appears to be changing in at least one sector of the health care field. An examination of admission contracts used by North Carolina nursing homes and telephone survey of North Carolina nursing homes revealed that 43 percent of nursing homes now incorporate pre-dispute binding arbitration provisions into their admission contracts. All of the major nursing home chains operating in North Carolina use pre-dispute binding arbitration agreements in at least some of their facilities, while smaller operators use them …

Fear Of Facebook: Private Ordering Of Social Media Risks Incurred By Healthcare Providers, Nicolas P. Terry

Nicolas P Terry

The last two years have seen important quantitative and qualitative shifts in social media use patterns in the healthcare environment. Reacting to present and future risks there has been a rapid deployment of private ordering: social media policies and other contractual constructs emanating from physicians, professional organizations, employers and educators. These private, often contractual attempts to regulate online interactions or social media conduct are not all benign, themselves creating ethical or legal risk. This article, a follow-up to Physicians And Patients Who ‘Friend’ Or ‘Tweet’: Constructing A Legal Framework For Social Networking In A Highly Regulated Domain, 43 IND. L. …

Global Health Initiatives And Health System Development: The Historic Quest For Positive Synergies, Peter Hammer

Peter Hammer

Global Health Initiatives (GHIs) have ushered in revolutionary changes in the international public health architecture, providing clinical services that would have been unthought of a decade ago. But, the news is not all good. The more GHIs try to do, the clearer it becomes how much their work is constrained by endemic weaknesses within the health systems of most developing countries. Worse still, these fragile systems can be damaged by the distorting effects of GHIs attempting to work through and sometimes around them. The solution is to seek greater “positive synergies” between the objectives of GHIs and the objectives of …

The Need For Transparency In Health Care Markets: Clearing The Fog To Make The Market Work, David Balto

David Balto

This paper will examine what all health care market participants stand to gain from increased transparency as well as the importance of standardization, data reporting to regulators, and disclosure to consumers in achieving the potential benefits of cost control, quality effects and access impact. With respect to the recent health care reform bill, I will outline the transparency provisions achieved under PPACA and will evaluate them in terms of the necessary preconditions of transparency. Using the hospital systems in Wisconsin and Colorado, detailed hospital reports published by New Hampshire and Maine, and the savings resulting from transparent contracts with pharmacy …

Unblocked Future: Why Gene Patents Won’T Hinder Whole-Genome Sequencing And Personalized Medicine, W. Nicholson Price Ii

W. Nicholson Price II

Whole-genome sequencing has been hailed as the crucial next step in personalized medicine. It has also been described as likely violating hundreds if not thousands of pre-existing patents on individual genes. These claims of patent infringement, however, are usually made without detailed analysis. Instead of stating that infringement definitely occurs, or in what circumstances, the discussion of whole-genome sequencing mentions that some claims may be typically infringed, but some may be invalid, and leaves the matter there. This paper seeks to provide a detailed analysis of the ways that whole-genome sequencing may infringe extant gene patents, focusing on the common …

The Return Of Quarantinism And How To Keep It In Check: From Wishful Regulations To Political Accountability, Giovanni De Grandis

Giovanni De Grandis

The return of infectious diseases has brought back a series of techniques for controlling the spread of disease labelled quarantinist measures. Since such measures typically infringe individual rights or privacy their use is subject to legal regulations and ethical scrutiny. Yet in some circumstances they can be very effective. After considering some case studies that show how epidemics are unique, fluid and affected by a multitude of contingent factors, it is argued that the legal and ethical guidelines may not be the best approach to discipline the use of quarantinist measures. An alternative model based on ex-post political accountability for …

Gray Matters: Autism, Impairment, And The End Of Binaries, Kevin M. Barry

Kevin M Barry

First diagnosed by psychiatrist Leo Kanner in 1943, Autism has exploded into the public consciousness in recent years. From science to science fiction, academia to popular culture, Autism has captured the world’s attention and imagination. Autism has also ignited a fierce debate among stakeholders who seek to define its essence. Many parents of Autistic children regard Autism as a scourge and press for a cure. The Neurodiversity Movement, comprised mostly of Autistic adults, regards Autism as a different way of being worthy of respect and even celebration. The Autism war is well underway and, given Autism’s swelling ranks and proposed …