Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Herd Behavior In Designer Genes, Peter H. Huang

Publications

The ability of individuals to choose their children's genes has increased over time and may ultimately culminate in a world involving free market reprogenetic technologies. Reprogenetic technologies combine advances in reproductive biology and genetics to provide humans increased control over their children's genes. This Article offers economic perspectives that are helpful in understanding the possibly unexpected ethical, legal, and social issues at stake in using reprogenetic technologies for trait enhancement selection. The Appendix analyzes two competitive games that might arise in such a biotechnological society. Specifically, the Article focuses on herd behavior, caused by either a popularity contest or positional …

Dollywood Is Not Just A Theme Park In Tennessee Anymore: Unwarranted Prohibitory Human Cloning Legislation And Policy Guidelines For A Regulatory Approach To Cloning, 31 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1385 (1998), Paul Tully

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

On The Sudden Loss Of A Human Rights Activist: A Tribute To Dr. Jonathan Mann's Use Of International Human Rights Law In The Global Battle Against Aids, 32 J. Marshall L. Rev. 129 (1998), Mark E. Wojcik

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Response To Dolly: Will Scientific Freedom Get Sheared , Melissa K. Cantrell

Journal of Law and Health

This Comment will discuss the current threat to scientific freedom posed by absolute bans on human cloning. Parts II and III discuss the response of the United States and the international community to Dolly. Part IV discusses the legal position of scientific freedom in the U.S. and abroad. Finally, Part V will posit that a total ban on human cloning infringes on the freedom of scientific inquiry, and endangers the public by encouraging the establishment of black market cloning clinics.

Can Patents Deter Innovation? The Anticommons In Biomedical Research, Michael Heller, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Faculty Scholarship

The "tragedy of the commons" metaphor helps explain why people overuse shared resources. However, the recent proliferation of intellectual property rights in biomedical research suggests a different tragedy, an "anticommons" in which people underuse scarce resources because too many owners can block each other. Privatization of biomedical research must be more carefully deployed to sustain both upstream research and downstream product development. Otherwise, more intellectual property rights may lead paradoxically to fewer useful products for improving human health.

Fda Approved? A Critique Of The Artificial Insemination Industry In The United States, Karen M. Ginsberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Artificial insemination by donor is becoming an increasingly popular means to achieving parenthood. While the majority of couples use artificial insemination to overcome fertility problems, many recipients use artificial insemination to avoid passing a genetic disease to their children. However, case studies reveal the inherent dangers of artificial insemination, namely the lack of proper screening methods to avoid passing genetic diseases to children born by artificial insemination. State-by-state regulation, federal guidelines, and private adjudication have all proven to be inadequate methods of regulating the artificial insemination industry. Ginsberg proposes federal regulation as the only means of achieving a safe artificial …

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.

Using The Dna Profile As The Unique Patient Identifier In The Community Health Information Network: Legal Implications, 15 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 227 (1997), Lisa L. Dahm

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

One of the greatest obstacles to electronic medical record keeping is the absence of a unique patient identifier. With the sharing of patient's information, an increased risk of error exists. Among these risks are the transmission of the wrong patient's records and security of confidential patient information. Implementation of a uniform patient identifier will eliminate the obstacle to cooperation and information-sharing of health data. This article proposes the application of a unique protocol, which utilizes DNA fingerprints as a patient's personal identifier. Since each individual's DNA profile is distinctly different, the fingerprint would act as the patient's personal bar code, …

Fetal Tissue Research: State Regulation Of The Donation Of Aborted Fetuses Without The Consent Of The Mother, 31 J. Marshall L. Rev. 277 (1997), Christie A. Seifert

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prenatal Genetic Screening: The Enigma Of Selective Abortion, David Stoller

Journal of Law and Health

This paper examines the issues of pre-natal genetic testing and its ethical and legal concerns. Part II details the scientific techniques involved in pre-natal genetic testing. Part III discusses the Human Genome Project and its influence on the choices available to prospective parents. Part IV analyzes the moral and ethical issues raised by pre-natal genetic screening. Part V presents the legal issues raised by pre-natal genetic screening. Finally, Part VI concludes and offers a prospective on the future of these technologies.

Health Care Cost Containment And Medical Technology: A Critique Of Waste Theory, Maxwell J. Mehlman

Faculty Publications

The high cost of health care has led to proposals to reduce wasteful medical technology under Medicare and other payment systems. Professor Mehlman warns that achieving this objective, while laudable in theory, is problematic because of the difficulties of defining, detecting and eliminating technology waste. A particular danger is that, in an effort to reduce waste, patients will be denied not only technologies that are wasteful from the patient's own perspective but technologies that yield net patient benefit. This risk is exacerbated by the Medicare prospective payment system, which rewards hospitals financially in inverse proportion to the amount of care …

Genetic Confidentiality: What's The Big Secret?, Paul A. Lombardo

Faculty Publications By Year

No abstract provided.

Toward A Pragmatic Model Of Judicial Decisionmaking: Why Tort Law Provides A Better Framework Than Constitutional Law For Deciding The Issue Of Medical Futility, Brent D. Lloyd

Seattle University Law Review

Recognizing that courts will eventually have to confront the issue of medical futility, this Comment argues that there is no principled basis for omitting these difficult questions from a legal analysis of the issue and that courts should therefore decide the issue in a manner that honestly confronts them. Specifically, the argument advanced here is that courts confronted with cases of medical futility should decide the issue under principles of tort law, rather than under principles of constitutional law. The crux of this argument is that tort principles provide an open-ended analytical framework conducive to considering troublesome questions like those …

Calming Aids Phobia: Legal Implications Of The Low Risk Of Transmitting Hiv In The Health Care Setting, American Bar Association Aids Coordinating Committee

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Scientists are concluding that the risk of becoming infected with the virus that causes AIDS based on transmission from an infected health care worker is infinitesimal: in fact, only one health care worker has ever been documented as the source of HN transmission to a patient. This Article sets forth the medical evidence concerning this low risk and argues that legal decision making should incorporate these facts into its analysis of legal problems involving HN-infected health care workers. The Article analyzes three areas of such legal decision making: (1) employment and related credentialing of HN-infected health care workers; (2) liability …

A.D.A.M. -- The Computer Generated Cadaver: A New Development In Medical Malpractice And Personal Injury Litigation, 13 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 313 (1995), André M. Thapedi

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

A.D.A.M. is a CD-ROM based, interactive, anatomical program that permits the user to view and observe the anatomical aspect of the human body used in medical schools throughout the United States. A.D.A.M. and its female counterpart E.V.E., use high-resolution graphics and color animation to show views of the human body from every conceivable angle simulating various traumas to the body. Utilizing a mouse, the A.D.A.M. user can "point and click" to reveal the various parts of the human body. Potentially, attorneys can use A.D.A.M. to demonstrate injuries and surgeries to the trier of fact in a trial proceeding. The trial …

Medical Process Patents And Patient Privacy Rights, 14 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 131 (1995), Jeffrey A. Taylor

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The author analyzes the patentability of medical processes and the effect patentability has on the right to privacy essential in a physician-patient relationship. Part II of the comment provides a the legal background on the issue of the patentability of medical processes. Part III examines the impact of enforcing medical process patents and the effect disclosure of medical records has upon the privacy of the physician-patient relationship when owners of patents try to expose patent infringement. Part IV advocates that Congress should amend the Patent Act to preserve patient privacy rights when infringement is investigated. According to the author, such …

Restatement (Second) Of Torts Section 324a: An Innovative Theory Of Recovery For Patients Injured Through Use Or Misuse Of Health Care Information Services, 14 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 73 (1995), Lisa L. Dahm

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The author in this comment discusses how developments in information technology and widespread utilization of technology and software in the patient care context raise the issue of clinical liability for health care information systems vendors. The comment discusses a theory of recovery of tort damages for the negligence of health care information systems vendors under section 324A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. Section 324A provides in essence that "one who undertakes ... for consideration, to render services to another which he should recognize as necessary for the protection of a third person ... is subject to liability to the …

Opinion Letter As To The Patentability Of Certain Inventions Associated With The Identification Of Partial Cdna Sequences, Rebecca S. Eisenberg, Robert P. Merges

Articles

You have asked for our legal opinion on the patentability of inventions claimed in U.S. patent applications 07/716,831, filed June 21, 1991 (the '831 application, or .'831"), 07/837,195, filed September 25, 1992 ("'195"), and 07/952,911, filed February 12, 1993 (."911"), all filed in the name of Craig Venter and others and assigned to the National Institutes of Health "(NIH)." We understand that NIH has abandoned these patent applications and has no present intention of filing similar applications in the future, but that NIH remains interested in the patenting of human DNA sequences from a broader public policy perspective. We have …

Reply To Comments On The Patentability Of Certain Inventions Associated With The Identification Of Partial Cdna Sequences, Rebecca S. Eisenberg, Robert P. Merges

Articles

A brief reply is in order to clarify our position on the patenting of research tools. We stand by the statement that "there are reasons to be wary of patents on research tools," but that statement should not be understood as a broad condemnation of patents on research tools in all contexts. Indeed, immediately after the cited language our opinion letter acknowledges that withholding patent protection from research tools could undermine private incentives to develop research tools and to make them available to investigators or lead to greater reliance on trade secrecy. Unlike the government, which purports to pursue patent …

Mandatory Non-Anonymous Testing Of Newborns For Hiv: Should It Ever Be Allowed?, Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

In response to cries from both the public and the medical community for increased research and improved treatments with respect to pediatric AIDS, some state legislatures have attempted to enact legislation that would require routine mandatory testing of newborns for HIV on a non-anonymous basis.

Those who favor mandatory testing of newborns contend that such testing is necessary in order to protect the health of newborns and to ensure that the newborns' doctors provide them with adequate care. Moreover, testing advocates argue that because most hospitals already screen anonymously, failing to inform parents of the test results is inappropriate and …

Sounds Of Silence For The Walkman Generation: Rock Concerts And Noise-Induced Hearing Loss, Eric Daniel Johnson

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Patent Rights In The Human Genome Project, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Book Chapters

The various research efforts that comprise the Human Genome Project will inevitably both draw on and yield a multitude of patentable inventions. The broad subject matter of the patent laws potentially reaches every phase of the Genome Project, from the discovery of new research technologies, such as techniques and equipment for DNA sequencing, through the ultimate development of new products, such as screening tests for genetically transmitted diseases. Even bits and pieces of the human genome itself may be, and sometimes have been, patented.' Nor does the fact that the public is paying for the Genome Project through federal funding …

Neonatal Hiv Testing: Governmental Inspection Of The Baby Factory, 24 J. Marshall L. Rev. 571 (1991), Scott H. Isaacman

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Shattered Mirrors: Our Search For Identity And Community In The Aids Era, William J. Aseltyne

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Shattered Mirrors: Our Search for Identity and Community in the AIDS Era by Monroe E. Price

A Moral Dilemma: The Role Of Judicial Intervention In Withholding Or Withdrawing Nutrition And Hydration, 23 J. Marshall L. Rev. 537 (1990), Anthony M. Peccarelli

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Elimination Of Process: Will The Biotechnology Patent Protection Act Revive Process Patents, 24 J. Marshall L. Rev. 263 (1990), Kerin Kelly

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Biotechnology Revolution And Its Regulatory Evolution, Diane E. Hoffmann

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

On The Human Body As Property: The Meaning Of Embodiment, Markets, And The Meaning Of Strangers, Thomas H. Murray

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

For as long as I can recall, newspapers have published brief items in which someone has calculated what the human body is "worth" on the open market. The value of the body-as reduced to its chemical components-was never more than a few dollars. A more accurate accounting, though, would include the market value of transplantable organs and tissues, as well as the potential bonanza to be had should a cell line cultured from that body prove valuable to the biotechnology industry. The bottom line could be anywhere from tens of thousands to perhaps millions of dollars.

Both moral and legal …

Special Care: Medical Decisions At The Beginning Of Life, Jonathan H. Margolies

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Special Care: Medical Decisions at the Beginning of Life by Fred M. Frohock

The Rutabaga That Ate Pittsburgh: Federal Regulation Of Free Release Biotechnology, Michael P. Vandenbergh

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first approved a field test of a bioengineered microbe,' one EPA official remarked: "We're not expecting this to be the rutabaga that eats Pittsburgh.' 2 But regulators cannot afford to be wrong. Bioengineered microbes may serve many useful purposes, but they may also cause harm to the environment and to human health.3 Although the risks of an accident stemming from the deliberate release of bioengineered microbes into the environment may be low, the resulting damage could be substantial. This note examines the possible consequences of two recent trends in biotechnology-the development of bioengineered microbes …