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The Principle Of The Least Restrictive Alternative For Mentally-Retarded Persons: The Constitutional Issues, David L. Chambers

Book Chapters

Mentally retarded people are people. When strong reasons exist to treat them differently from other people, they should be provided the necessary services, restraint, or protection through means that intrude as little as possible on their freedom to live the life that others are permitted to live. "Normalization" is the term professionals use to define the goal and the process of helping mentally retarded citizens lead a "normal" life. The attainment of this goal involves undoing the multitude of formal constrictions governments have typically placed on the retarded citizen's freedom: his place of residence, his schooling, his control over his …

Michigan's Revised Mental Health Code, William David Serwer

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This note will evaluate the three chapters of the Michigan Code which present the most significant legislative attempts to safeguard the rights of the mentally ill. Chapter Four of the Code extends several traditional due process guarantees to the civil commitment process. By guaranteeing the right to adequate notice, the right to be present at the hearing, the right to be represented by counsel, and the right to notice of trial by jury, the Code offers better protection from unwarranted commitment. However, due to the difficulty of defining mental illness and accurately identifying those in need of treatment, the possibility …

New York's Revised Nursing Home Legislation, Michael G. Mcgee

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This note undertakes an analysis of the extensive package of nursing home legislation recently enacted in New York. First, specific regulations will be examined in relation to problems they are designed to remedy. Next, the note critically appraises three key, innovative provisions, making recommendations for implementation or revision of each. Finally, the broad changes needed to bring about lasting improvement of nursing care are discussed and a summary of pending legislation is provided.

Lead-Based Paint Poisoning: Remedies For The Hud Low-Income Homeowner When Neglect Is No Longer Benign, Thomas P. Sarb

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Lead-based paint poisoning is a completely preventable disease which particularly afflicts young children living in deteriorating areas of the cities. It is caused by the ingestion of paint chips containing significant amounts of lead that have fallen or been picked off ceilings, floors, and woodwork of older houses. Repeated ingestion of such paint chips can lead to mental retardation, permanent impairment of intellectual ability, cerebral palsy, and blindness. Every year at least 400,000 children show some effect of lead poisoning; 50,000 of them need treatment; and 200 children die of the disease. The early symptoms of lead poisoning are changes …

The Impact Of Michigan's Health Maintenance Organization Act, Roger Alan Petzke

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Growing dissatisfaction with the shortcomings of the traditional system of health care has led to renewed interest in the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) concept in recent years. Although some HMO's have been operating in the United States for over forty years, conditions have been less than favorable to their growth and development. Major obstacles have been opposition from the medical profession, lack of public understanding about the nature and function of HMO's, and state laws restricting or prohibiting the establishment of HMO's. In order to create a more favorable legal climate and encourage HMO development, a number of states, including …

The Sale Of Human Body Parts, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Section I of this Note briefly surveys the state of the transplant art; section II outlines the inadequacy of the present human parts supply system; section III discusses some of the alternatives advanced as solutions to the shortage; section IV discusses the market system alternative; section V considers existing legal doctrines that may impede the establishment of such a system; and section VI reviews tort and tax law problems associated with the market concept.

On The Voluntary Admission Of Minors, Louis Lessem

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The past several years have been witness to dramatic changes in both the theory and practice of civil commitment. In the law, this development has taken the form of increased concern for the protection of the personal liberties of the mentally ill while among members of the medical profession it has been experienced as a part of the process of opening up the back wards. Legislatures in many states have responded by revising their mental health statutes to establish more rigorous standards for commitment, periodic review of the status of committed patients, and better procedural safeguards throughout the commitment process. …

Police Initiated Emergency Psychiatric Detention In Michigan, Mark F. Mehlman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

While performing his duties a police officer may frequently be confronted with the behavior of an individual which threatens or has resulted in self-inflicted injury, or which poses an imminent threat to the safety of others. Under such circumstances an officer may determine that criminal arrest is inappropriate but that some form of restraint is necessary. Michigan has provided an alternative course of action by authorizing temporary emergency psychiatric detention of an individual whom a police officer deems to be "mentally ill and manifesting homicidal or other dangerous tendencies."

Indigents, Hospital Admissions And Equal Protection, Charles S. Derousie

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The author surveyed ten hospitals in each of ten states, including hospitals of varying sizes and classifications. Five of the forty-five replies indicated the hospital did not admit all indigents in need of medical care. The primary reason given was that prospective patients not covered by hospital insurance or government programs such as Medicaid or Medicare were usually unable to produce a required preadmission deposit. This practice of requiring a preadmission deposit seems to be common.

Alternatives To Civil Commitment Of The Mentally Ill: Practical Guides And Constitutional Imperatives, David L. Chambers

Articles

In 1930, Ford sold Fords only in black and states offered treatment for mental illness only in public mental hospitals. Today, new views of mental health care and mental health problems have begotten a galaxy of new treatment settings. Few cities can boast community-based programs sufficient to meet their needs, but almost all cities of any size rely increasingly on outpatient programs. The large public mental hospitals still stand, of course. Indeed, every year more people enter public hospitals than entered the year before. Over 400,000 Americans were admitted as inpatients to state and county mental hospitals last year.1 Partly …

Mental Illness And Criminal Commitment In Michigan, Grant H. Morris

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article concentrates on one vital issue: to what extent are differences in treatment justified because of a mentally ill person's "criminal" involvement. While the article is primarily concerned with Michigan institutions and Michigan statutes, the discussion and the solutions proposed are in many respects applicable to all states of the Union. Not only must all states reevaluate their policies toward criminal commitment of the mentally ill in light of ever-changing medical and penal theory, but they must also consider the developing constitutional concepts in this area. These constitutional issues are raised here only to the extent necessary to alert …

Supplying Organs For Transplantation, Jesse Dukeminier Jr

Michigan Law Review

The possibility that a market for organs will develop arises as a result of recent scientific successes in interchanging human parts and the consequent imbalance that has arisen between the quantity of organs supplied and the quantity demanded. Currently, and in the foreseeable future, unless our laws are changed, the quantity supplied will not equal the quantity demanded at a zero price. When useful items are in short supply in a market economy monetary inducements to increase the supply are commonly offered. The question then arises whether society should permit such inducements in order to ensure a satisfactory supply of …

The Language Of Involuntary Mental Hospitalization: A Study In Sound And Fury, Steven H. Levinson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Involuntary civil commitment is the business of hospitalizing and treating, without their consent, persons whom a court, with the aid of professional diagnosticians, determines to be psychologically disturbed or mentally ill. The purpose of the present study will be to demonstrate that the medical diagnoses of mental illness which justify involuntary civil commitment are achieved on the basis of at least unreliable and at worst invalid sets of diagnostic categories and assessments. For the purpose of determining the reliability of these diagnostic findings, the author selected a representative sample of the involuntary mental hospitalization proceedings of the Wayne County Probate …

Compulsory No-Fault Medical Insurance For Automobile Owners, William L. Schlosser

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The enactment of the Massachusetts compulsory no-fault insurance bill, and Senator Phillip Hart's recent introduction of national no-fault insurance legislation, indicate the serious consideration no-fault insurance is receiving as a method of reforming the existing auto accident compensation system. The current tort system of recovery of auto accident medical expenses is inefficient, and, in many cases, does not adequately compensate the injured parties. Compulsory no-fault insurance is well suited to remedy these deficiencies. Under a no-fault insurance plan, benefits would be paid without regard to the question of fault; consequently, every accident victim would receive compensation without first having to …

A Proposed Cure For The Intervention Blues, Lawrence E. Hard

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article does not purport to provide a study of the doctrine of subrogation and the merits of that doctrine in the context of insurance coverage. There are several difficult questions which could be raised as to the proper role of subrogation in insurance litigation. This article assumes the propriety of extending the right of subrogation to the type of medical and hospital payment plans offered by the Services and analyses the device of intervention as a method of enforcing the Services' right to contractual subrogation.

Euthanasia Legislation: Some Non-Religious Objections, Yale Kamisar

Book Chapters

A book by Glanville Williams, The Sanctity of Life and the Criminal Law,1 once again brought to the fore the controversial topic of euthanasia, more popularly known as 'mercy-killing'. In keep_ ing with the trend of the e.uthanasia movement over the past generation, Williams concentrates his efforts for reform on the voluntary type of euthanasia, for example the cancer victim begging for death, as opposed to the involuntary variety -- that is, the case of the congenital idiot, the permanently insane, or the senile

When a legal scholar of Williams's stature joins the ranks of such formidable law thinkers as …

Constitutional Law--Police Power--Michigan Statute Requiring Motorcyclists To Wear Protective Helmets Held Unconstitutional, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The effects of the helmet decisions on the law in general may be substantial. On the one hand, if a helmet statute is held constitutional, inroads could be made upon personal liberty; the legislature might rely on similar strained and unproved relationships to the general welfare in order to justify regulations impinging upon other areas of individual conduct. On the other hand, to hold such a statute unconstitutional may require the judiciary to interfere unreasonably with the legislature's conception of public welfare. In light of these considerations, courts dealing with challenges to such regulations in the future should pay closer …

Hospital Emergency Service And The Open Door, Leonard S. Powers

Michigan Law Review

This Article will focus on the emerging duty of hospital emergency rooms to treat patients seeking their aid.

Disposition Of The Irresponsible: Protection Following Commitment, Travis H. Lewin

Michigan Law Review

Each year more of our fellow citizens are involuntarily committed to a mental institution of one sort or another than are incarcerated for the commission of a crime. To those committed, the walls and barred windows of the hospital, as well as the treatment and mode of living, are probably not significantly different from those of a prison. This is particularly the case with those confined for treatment by court order or by some special statutory procedure following acquittal of a crime on grounds of insanity. Yet these mentally ill, even after perpetrating what would otherwise have been a criminal …

Prescriptions Issued To Deceased And Fictitious Patients Are Forgeries Under New York Penal Law Although Signed With True Name Of Issuing Doctor--People V. Klein, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a licensed New York physician, issued five prescriptions for narcotics, signing his own name and giving his correct address and narcotics registry number. On four of the prescriptions deceased patients were represented as the intended recipients of the drugs; on the fifth the name of a fictitious patient was used. The defendant used these forms to obtain the prescribed narcotics and administered them to an addict. He was convicted of ten counts of third-degree forgery under sections 889-b and 881 of the New York Penal Law. On appeal, held, affirmed. Prescriptions issued to deceased and fictitious patients are …

"Imminent Danger Of Addiction" As A Ground For Involuntary Commitment In California--People V. Victor, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Since the passage of the Harrison Act in 1914, the principal means of controlling drug addiction in the United States have been rigid controls on importation and domestic production of narcotics, and increasingly heavy penal sanctions for the illegal possession or sale of addicting drugs. Effective as these measures have been in restricting the domestic traffic in narcotics and driving up the price of illegal drugs, long prison sentences have not been successful in either deterring or curing drug addiction. Recognizing the unique psychological and physiological aspects of addiction, the United States Public Health Service established hospitals in the 1930's …

The Unborn Plaintiff, David A. Gordon

Michigan Law Review

It is almost twenty-five years since Professor Winfield's article "The Unborn Child" was published. The development of this area of the law during the past quarter century is probably summed up in the distinction between that title and the one to this article.

State Action, State Law, And The Private Hospital, Mary Mandana Long

Michigan Law Review

On March 2, 1964, the United States Supreme Court denied a petition to review by certiorari the decision in Simkins v. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hosp. By declining to review the case the Supreme Court left unaffected the holding of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that two private hospitals which had participated in the Hill-Burton program of federal hospital assistance were sufficiently involved with governmental action, both state and federal, to bring their conduct within the fifth and fourteenth amendment prohibitions against racial discrimination. This decision will probably affect all of the 3,346 private, non-profit hospitals in …

Courts-Scope Of Authority-Sterilization Of Mental Defectives, William R. Warnock

Michigan Law Review

Respondent, age nineteen, appeared before the probate court of Muskingum County, Ohio, upon an affidavit filed by her mother alleging the child to be feeble-minded and in need of medical treatment. Results of psychological tests were presented at the hearing, revealing that respondent had an intelligence quotient of thirty-six and was therefore a feeble-minded person within the statutory definition. Respondent had had one illegitimate child, for whom she was unable to provide even rudimentary care or financial support, and was physically capable of bearing more children. Taking judicial notice that the state mental hospitals were then overcrowded and unable to …

Sales-Implied Warranty-Merchantable Quality Of Tobacco Products, John E. Mogk

Michigan Law Review

Decedent's widow and the administrator of his estate brought a consolidated suit against the American Tobacco Company on six theories of liability for the death of decedent, allegedly caused by lung cancer purportedly contracted from the smoking of defendant's cigarettes. At the close of plaintiff's evidence, the district court directed a verdict for defendant on all counts except those of implied warranty and negligence. The jury determined that, although defendant's cigarettes were the cause of decedent's lung cancer and resultant death, defendant had no means of knowing that the cigarettes would cause cancer. On appeal of the implied warranty charge …

Negligence-Res Lpsa Loquitur-Application To Medical Malpractice Actions: 1951-196, Peter D. Byrnes S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Res ipsa loquitur, "the thing speaks for itself," has been the subject matter of extensive legal literature since its inception almost a century ago. It is now well settled that res ipsa loquitur is no more than an inference of negligence from circumstantial evidence. The doctrine is applicable if an act or occurrence is of the type that ordinarily would not take place without negligence, assuming the plaintiff has himself been passive, and if the instrumentality causing the harm is within the exclusive control of the defendant. The application of res ipsa loquitur to the medical malpractice area has …

The Extension Of Insurance Subrogation, Spencer L. Kimball, Don A. Davis

Michigan Law Review

When an insured loss occurs under circumstances that make a third person liable to reimburse the insured, there are various possible ways to adjust the loss among the three persons involved. One solution would permit the policyholder to recover both on the insurance and from the third person, i.e., would permit double recovery for the loss. A second solution would give the third person the benefit of the insurance by denying recovery from him. A third solution would subrogate the insurer to the policyholder's rights against the third person. Combinations of these three solutions are possible by applying sometimes …

Legal, Medical And Psychiatric Considerations In The Control Of Prostitution, B. J. George Jr.

Michigan Law Review

In common with other nations of the world the United States today as in the past is faced with the problem of controlling prostitution, particularly in urban areas. At one time or another states and cities in the United States have experimented with the classic methods of controlling prostitution: reglementation, segregation and repression. Reglementation of individual houses or prostitutes has never been carried out on a statewide basis in any state in the United States, though one can find instances in certain large cities in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in which city ordinances or de facto police regulations …

Criminal Law - Insane Persons - Influence Of Mental Illness On The Parole Return Process, David G. Davies S.Ed., John H. Hess M.D.

Michigan Law Review

Defendants in the criminal process are divided into rigidly exclusive categories of mental health. The competent to stand trial are first separated from the incompetent. Then the competent are divided on the basis of their mental state at the time of their acts between the "sane" and the "insane." As long as these rigid categories are administered in an adversary trial system, some misdirection of victims of serious mental illness into the penal system is almost inevitable. Even where mental illness might otherwise prevent conviction, those accused of non-capital felonies are not likely to raise the question, and few courts …

Group For The Advancement Of Psychiatry: Confidentiality And Privileged Communication In The Practice Of Psychiatry, Henry Weihofen

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Confidentiality and Privileged Communication in the Practice of Psychiatry. Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry.