Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint By Lawrence O. Gostin, Julia Field Costich

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Organ Trail: Express Versus Presumed Consent As Paths To Blaze In Solving A Critical Shortage, Emily Denham Morris

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Two Concepts Of Immortality: Reframing Public Debate On Stem-Cell Research, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Whither Antitrust? The Uncertain Future Of Competition Law In Health Care, Thomas L. Greaney

All Faculty Scholarship

Although instrumental in ushering in competition to the health care industry and later in safeguarding the competitive structure of markets, antitrust law has come under attack. A series of questionable judicial decisions has clouded the standards applicable to analyzing health care markets. Legislative efforts to immunize conduct from antitrust challenge also have gathered support in recent years. This study finds scant economic or policy basis for these developments and concludes that anti-managed sentiments have diluted enthusiasm for applying competitive principles in health care. This phenomenon has resulted in outcome-driven judicial decisions and legislative activity geared to serving political expediency rather …

Disability, Doctors And Dollars: Distinguishing The Three Faces Of Reasonable Accommodation, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

Despite a decade of litigation, there is no consistent understanding of the reasonable accommodation requirement of Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the 'ADA'). Indeed, there are three inconsistent distributive outcomes that appear to comport with the reasonable accommodation requirement: cost-shifting, cost-sharing, and cost-avoidance.

One reason for such inconsistent outcomes is a failure to develop a coherent and consistent theory of disability. Because disability has been and continues to be medicalized, this Article takes a fresh look at the medical literature on health, illness, and disability. It recommends the use of the experiential health model over …

The New Cigarette Paternalism, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Smoking is by far the largest single risk that most people take. Perhaps in part because of that prominence, smoking has been the target of a wide variety of regulations and legal actions. The controversy over tobacco products is at least four centuries old, but it has been largely over the past half-century that the diverse wave of public policy initiatives against tobacco products has emerged. Within a standard economic framework of consumer choice, there would seem to be little impetus for broadly based government efforts to discourage smoking. The risks of smoking are largely borne by the consumers who …

Safety At Any Price, W. Kip Viscusi, Ted Gayer

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

After three decades of experience with extensive government regulation and oversight of health, safety and environmental matters, we have reason to believe that those measures have largely failed to fulfill their initial promise, but many of the initial promises were infeasible goals of a "zero-risk" society. Economic findings with respect to risk-risk tradeoffs highlight the fallacies inherent in government's zero-risk mentality. Agencies that make an unbounded financial commitment to safety frequently are sacrificing individual lives. There continues to be major opportunities to improve regulatory performance by targeting existing inefficiencies and using market mechanisms (rather than strict command-and-control mechanisms) to achieve …

Recovering From Drugs And The Drug War: An Achievable Public Health Alternative, Eric Blumenson

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

For three decades our War on Drugs has characterized illicit drug use as a law enforcement problem, to be addressed primarily through interdiction and criminal punishment. This policy has multiplied the number of imprisoned Americans, but our drug problem remains as entrenched as ever, and both voters and policy experts appear ready to embrace an alternative public health approach. Such an approach recognizes that a substantial number of Americans will continue to use drugs for the foreseeable future, and seeks to minimize the risks these people face from their drug habits. This requires programs and funding for treatment, education, and …

New Death Penalty Debate: What's Dna Got To Do With It, James S. Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

The nation is engaged in the most intensive discussion of the death penalty in decades. Temporary moratoria on executions are effectively in place in Illinois and Maryland, and during the winter 2001 legislative cycle legislation to adopt those pauses elsewhere cleared committees or one or more houses of the legislature, not only in Connecticut (passed the Senate Judiciary Committee) and Maryland (where it passed the entire House, and the Senate Judiciary Committee) but in Nevada (passed the Senate) and Texas (passed committees in both Houses). In the last year, abolition bills have passed or come within a few votes of …

Disease Management And Liability In The Human Genome Era, Larry I. Palmer

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Values And The Ethics Of Health Care: A Comparison Of The United States And Germany, William J. Wagner

Scholarly Articles

In the first section, this essay will consider questions the new era in health care poses for a health-care ethics of ends. The second section will address the question this emerging era raises for a health-care ethics of duty. Under the rubric of an ethics of ends, the essay examines, more particularly, the ends of health and efficiency. Under that of duty, it addresses the duties of respect for the dignity of the human person; respect for the covenant of treatment; and respect for justice in distribution. In each case, it seeks to identify the basis for an adequate response …

The Science, Law, And Politics Of Fetal Pain Legislation, Kevin C. Walsh

Scholarly Articles

Most people prefer not to inflict gratuitous pain on other sentient beings, especially other humans. What, then, should be the legal system's reaction to the mounting evidence that in late-term abortions doctors are inflicting just such pain on fetuses who have the anatomical, physiological, and neurological capacity to experience it? The pain being inflicted is gratuitous because it can be easily avoided with no significant increases in cost or health risk by the administration of tar geted fetal pain relief. If informed that an abortion is likely to cause pain to the fetus and given a choice between a procedure …

Industry And The Academy: Conflicts Of Interest In Contemporary Health Research, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The case of Dr. Nancy Olivieri, the Hospital for Sick Children (HSC), the University of Toronto, and Apotex Inc. (hereinafter the "Olivieri case") is critically important to an understanding of the issues central to contemporary health research and the safety of research participants. First, the case illustrates the huge stakes in such research – not only billions of dollars, but the health of Canadians. Second, the case played out at a crucial time in the history of the regulation of health research. Like other recent high-profile cases, it challenged the ways in which research is governed at the local and …

Tort Reform And The Medical Liability Insurance Crisis In Mississippi: Diagnosing The Disease And Prescribing A Remedy, Neil Vidmar, Leigh Anne Brown

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Hellingv. Carey Revisited: Physician Liability In The Age Of Managed Care, Leonard J. Nelson Iii

Seattle University Law Review

In this article, the author proposes that the traditional custom-based standard applicable in medical malpractice cases be replaced with a reasonable, prudent physician standard that will more adequately take into account the role of the physician in rationing care. Part I of this article focuses on the heightened tension between tort and contract in managed health care. Part II of this article examines managed care cost containment techniques and their possible impact on physician decision making. Part III focuses on the widely acknowledged shortcomings of the customary standard. Part IV provides an outline of the doctrinal regime for my proposed …

Will Price Control Legislation Satisfactorily Address The Issue Of High Prescription Drug Prices?: Several States Are Waiting In The Balance For Phrma V. Concannon, Shawna Lydon Woodward

Seattle University Law Review

Section II of this Note will discuss Canada's prescription drug pricing scheme and why prescription drugs cost significantly more in the United States. Section III will discuss PhRMA v. Concannon, in cluding an analysis of the parties' arguments on price controls for pre- scription drugs. Section IV will illustrate that Washington's current role in the battle on prescription drug pricing is inadequate to provide accessible and affordable prescription drugs for its citizens. Section V concludes with the proposal that Washington adopt new legislation modeled after the Maine Act to Establish Fairer Pricing for Prescription Drugs, which created the Maine Rx …

Protecting The Endangered Human: Toward An International Treaty Prohibiting Cloning And Inheritable Alterations, George J. Annas, Lori B. Andrews, Rosario M. Isasi

Faculty Scholarship

We humans tend to worry first about our own happiness, then about our families, then about our communities. In times of great stress, such as war or natural disaster, we may focus temporarily on our country but we rarely think about Earth as a whole or the human species as a whole. This narrow perspective, perhaps best exemplified by the American consumer, has led to the environmental degradation of our planet, a grossly widening gap in living standards between rich and poor people and nations and a scientific research agenda that focuses almost exclusively on the needs and desires of …

Medical Privacy And Medical Research: Judging The New Federal Regulations, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Americans support both protecting the privacy of medical records and encouraging medical research. Thus, it is not surprising that a move to change practices in these two areas has generated attention and comment. The new federal regulations, promulgated under the authority of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), were adopted to protect the privacy of medical records. They were not specifically designed to facilitate or limit medical research. Nonetheless, the regulations have prompted strong objections from the biotechnology industry and from academic medicine. The Association of American Medical Colleges and the Biotechnology Industry Organization have argued …