Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Feng Shui And The Restructuring Of The Hospital Corporation: A Call For Change In The Face Of The Medical Error Epidemic, John D. Blum

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.

Health Law At Fifty Years: A Look Back, Arnold J. Rosoff

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.

Access To Health, Natalie Huls

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Access to health is an often-overlooked aspect of the right to health. Without practical access, the right to health becomes an empty promise. International human rights conventions and declarations do not directly mention access to health, but the above comment on the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights does address the issue.

Good Enough To Use For Research, But Not Good Enough To Benefit From The Results Of That Research: Are The Clinical Hiv Vaccine Trials In Africa Unjust?, Ruqaiijah Yearby

Faculty Publications

The epidemic of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection in Sub-Saharan Africa, the region most affected by the HIV pandemic and where HIV is the leading cause of death, is reaching insurmountable proportions. In fact, out of the 36.1 million HIV infections worldwide, 25.3 million, seventy percent, are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, of the more than 15,000 people who are infected with HIV every day, ninety-five percent of the cases are in populations that live in developing countries such as those located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Due to the significant number of Africans infected with HIV, many researchers and ethicists have …

Hippocrates To Hipaa: A Foundation For A Federal Physician-Patient Privilege, 77 Temp. L. Rev. 505 (2004), Ralph Ruebner, Leslie Ann Reis

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Feeding Tubes, Slippery Slopes, And Physician-Assisted Suicide, David Orentlicher, Christopher M. Callahan Md

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Not So Peaceful Coexistence: Inherent Tensions In Addressing Tort Law Reform, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

As Professor Michael Green's comments trenchantly remind us, all of this has a familiar ring: insurers and tort defendants claim unfairly escalating liability, plaintiffs' lawyers and consumer groups counterattack, and (for the most part), insurers and defendants obtain some of the relief they seek. The tort reform victories are not so overwhelming as to completely unravel the historical rights of victims or the power of courts generally, but some constriction of rights inevitably occurs. During periods of quiescence, plaintiffs and consumers take back some lost territory through common law victories expanding claimant rights, or through specific legislation. Statutes that permitted …

American Midwifery Litigation And State Legislative Preferences For Physician-Controlled Childbirth, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

From the colonial period to the Great Depression, lay midwives attended a large proportion of deliveries that occurred in the United States. As late as 1900, midwife-attended home births accounted for approximately one-half of all births in the United States. By 1950, however, physicians attended more than eighty percent of all deliveries in the hospital setting. Historians have analyzed and interpreted birth statistics, medical textbooks, medical school curricula, minutes of medical society meetings, public health reports, articles in medical journals and popular magazines, letters from laboring mothers, diaries of midwives, legislative committee reports, and state legislation to identify issues of …

Family Violence Protective Orders In Texas And Appelate Review: Are They Meant For Each Other., Manuel C. Maltos

St. Mary's Law Journal

Historically, protective orders have been viewed as an effective civil legal recourse for those affected by family violence. Title Four of the Texas Family Code governs these protective orders and sets forth the requirements for obtaining such an order. With consistent improvements to Title Four, the legislature has responded to society's decreasing tolerance of family violence. As a result, now the Family Code mandates the issuance of a protective order as provided by Title Four, regardless of whether a divorce is pending. Further legislative efforts also lengthened the maximum duration of a protective order from one year to two years. …

Legal Malpractice In Texas: Examining Selected Cases And Forecasting Future Trrends Third Annual Symposium On Legal Malpractice & Professional Responsibility: Symposium Presentations., Wallace B. Jefferson

St. Mary's Law Journal

Little hard data exists concerning legal malpractice in Texas. What’s more, few legal law malpractice rulings are published. To date, there are only fifty written opinions on legal malpractice from Texas intermediate appellate courts. The activity that most often gave rise to a claim of legal malpractice involved the preparation, filing, and transmittal of documents, accounting for about a quarter of all claims. In San Antonio, Chief Justice Alma Lopez of the Fourth District Court of Appeals discussed common issues she sees in her courtroom. The issues ranged from failures to follow simple court rules to more substantial failures of …

The Texas Cave Bug And The California Arroyo Toad Take On The Constitution's Commerce Clause., Daniel J. Lowenberg

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

Cash For Kidneys? Utilizing Incentives To End America's Organ Shortage, Steve P. Calandrillo

Articles

This article addresses the growing organ shortage in America, analyzes current donation and procurement law, and explores both monetary and nonmonetary incentives aimed at eliminating the worsening crisis.

Part I details the law governing human organ donation. Under both the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (“UAGA”) and the National Organ Transplant Act (“NOTA”), no donor of a human organ may receive “valuable consideration” for providing it. Congress’ intention was simply that the organ recipient be given the “gift” of life—not one which she had to purchase on the market. In reality, the consequences of the Act bear little resemblance to its …

Vanishing Vaccinations: Why Are So Many Americans Opting Out Of Vaccinating Their Children?, Steve P. Calandrillo

Articles

Part I of this Article details the historical development and medical achievements made possible by vaccines. From Edward Jenner to Jonas Salk to Albert Sabin, immense strides have been made in eradicating or substantially eliminating some of the worst diseases in human history. Smallpox, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, influenza, hepatitis A and B, and even the chicken pox are all now largely preventable.

Literally hundreds of millions of deaths have been avoided and many more lives markedly improved, to say nothing of the financial ramifications for the American healthcare system. All fifty states have therefore enacted compulsory …

A Tribute To Larry Kalevitch, Man For All Seasons, Differences In Professional School Cohorts In Law, Medicine, Business, Nursing And Education, Allen E. Shoenberger

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Is Sue And Be Sued Language A Clear And Unambiguous Waiver Of Immunity., A. Craig Carter

St. Mary's Law Journal

Because “sue and be sued” language is ambiguous at best, courts should not find that this language is a waiver of immunity. Under Texas law, governmental entities—including the state, its agencies, and political subdivisions—are entitled to sovereign immunity from both suit and liability. For sovereign immunity to be applicable to governmental entities, sovereign immunity applies unless the legislature has clearly and unambiguously waived it. Although numerous Texas appellate courts have held that “sue and be sued” language is a waiver of sovereign immunity, the Texas Supreme Court has squarely addressed the issue only once, in Missouri Pacific Railroad Co. v. …

The Texas Courts' Adventures In Locating Texas Coastal Boundaries: Redrawing A Line In The Sand: Kenedy Memorial Foundation V. Dewhurst Defining An Exception To Luttes V. State., Thomas M. Murray

St. Mary's Law Journal

Kenedy Memorial Foundation v. Dewhurst determined the boundary of the Laguna Madre by narrowing the scope of the exception found in Luttes v. State. Luttes established the “mean high tide” test (MHHT), which governs lands controlled by civil law. The MHHT determines a boundary by the mean of the high tide without regard to a summer or winter tide. The exception, however, does not require the application of the MHHT in areas in which tidal gauges could not be used accurately. The Laguna Madre is a shallow strip of water, ranging between three and five miles in width, running between …

A National Tax Bar: An End To The Attorney-Accountant Tax Turf War., Katherine D. Black, Stephen T. Black

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

Divorcing Marriage From Procreation – Goodridge V. Department Of Public Health Case, Jamal Greene

Faculty Scholarship

Public debate about same-sex marriage has spectacularly intensified in the wake of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. But amid the twisted faces, shouts, and murmurs surrounding that decision, a bit of old-fashioned common-lawmaking has been lost. Some have criticized the Goodridge court for its apparently result-oriented approach to the question of whether, consistent with the Massachusetts Constitution, the commonwealth may deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Others have defended the decision, both on the court's own rational basis terms and on other grounds, including sex discrimination and substantive due process. This …

Health Care Costs Continue Steady, Steep Climb, Douglas C. Nelson

Loyola Consumer Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Distance Education Primer: Lessons From My Life As A Dot.Edu Entrepreneur, Linda C. Fentiman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Through my experience in developing Pace's innovative distance education program, I have learned some critical lessons about the potential and perils of providing legal education via the Internet. In the belief that my experiences are generic, not dependent on a particular law school's context, I offer these observations to assist others who seek to launch distance education initiatives in the not-for-profit sector. The following is an account of my life as an educational entrepreneur.

Bioethical Malpractice: Risk And Responsibility In Human Research, Barbara A. Noah

Faculty Scholarship

This Article provides an overview of Institutional Review Board (IRB) operations, reviews the sources of regulatory guidance, and examines the weaknesses of the existing system for the protection of human research subjects. It then discusses the scant case law relating to IRB negligence in the protection of human research subjects and explores some hypothetical circumstances under which it may be appropriate to hold a board accountable for injuries to clinical trial participants. Finally, this Article considers the potential consequences of expanded IRB liability, concluding that tort lawsometimes may serve an important function as a catalyst to regulatory reform when professional …

Politicizing The End Of Life: Lessons From The Schiavo Controversy, Barbara A. Noah

Faculty Scholarship

The case of Theresa Marie Schiavo raises challenging legal and ethical issues, although the events of the case are not entirely novel. It is a well-settled principle under Florida law that individuals have a right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. After years of litigation, numerous courts have confirmed that removal of life support is legally appropriate under the facts of this case. Nevertheless, six days after Theresa's feeding tube was removed, the Florida legislature
opted to intervene in the final judicial decision by granting the Governor the authority to overrule the court's decision and to order the tube reinserted. These …

The Insurance Aspects Of Damages, Robert H. Jerry Ii, Douglas R. Richmond

UF Law Faculty Publications

"[I]t is difficult ... to imagine an event or transaction that does not involve insurance in some way." So it is with the most salient event in the lives of Tony and Donna Sabia, whose son Tony John Sabia, or "Little Tony," was born with profound disabilities. In the final analysis, the ability of Tony and Donna to pay for the future medical care and living expenses needed by their son depends on whether they can reach the liability insurance coverage possessed by the health care providers who attended Donna and Little Tony at the time of his birth. It …

When Vitalism Is Dead Wrong: The Discrimination Against And Torture Of Incompetent Patients By Compulsory Life- Sustaining Treatment, Alicia R. Ouellette

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Quantitative Methodology For Determining The Need For Exposure-Prompted Medical Monitoring, Christopher P. Guzelian, Bruce E. Hillner, Philip S. Guzelian

Indiana Law Journal

Some toxic exposures to drugs or other environmental chemicals may create an increased risk of future disease for which periodic preventive medical screening might be desirable. However, many of these risks, even if unacceptable as a matter of public health policy, might still not be significant enough for medical monitoring (periodic diagnostic screening for latent illnesses or medical conditions) to be an appropriate medical intervention. This somewhat unintuitive, but statistically certain, conclusion can be demonstrated in relatively simple mathematical terms. Accordingly, we introduce Bayes's Rule and decision analysis, a quantitative methodology commonly employed by medical practitioners. A review of current …

Back To The Future: The Future Of Long-Term Care In Massachusetts, Deborah H. Thomson, John J. Ford

Gerontology Institute Publications

The state of Massachusetts, like the rest of the United States, is facing an approaching crisis in long-term care. Over the next few decades the number of Massachusetts residents age 65 and older will soar. As these numbers increase, so will the need for long-term care.

Massachusetts is ill prepared to provide the services that will be needed. Our current system of health care benefits leaves many elders with gaps in coverage. Those individuals who need long-term services often impoverish themselves and their spouses before the state pays for their care. Others languish on waiting lists to receive services. Our …

Access To Health Care In Texas: A Patient-Centered Perspective, Laura Hermer, William J. Winslade

Faculty Scholarship

Access to health coverage in Texas is, and continues to be, an urgent policy issue. This article provides an overview and evaluation of the primary state- or local-based and private financial means through which Texans gain access to health care, and offers suggestions to the Texas Legislature to help improve coverage access.

Steering And Rowing In Health Care: The Devolution Option?, Colleen Flood, Joanna Erdman, Duncan Sinclair

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Publicly funded health care systems are often the subject of heated policy debates. All too often (particularly in Canada), these debates focus on the prohibitive costs, the resultant taxation levels, and the questionable efficiency and outcomes associated with a publicly funded system. Moreover, the institutionalization of the system and the entrenchment of its many stakeholders make effecting change particularly difficult. In this article, the authors begin with an assessment of the drawbacks of the Canadian health care system in the federal-provincial context and its resulting gaps in governance (steering), in management (rowing), and in overall accountability (apart from that offered …

The Boundaries Of Medicare: Tensions In The Dual Role Of Ontario's Physician Services Review Committee, Colleen Flood, Joanna Erdman

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this research, we describe and analyse the Physician Services Committee (PSC) in Ontario, focusing on its role in determining what physician services are publicly funded and what services are de-listed (i.e. no longer eligible for public funding). We explain how the PSC's role in determining the boundaries of Medicare is in tension with its role as a medium for labour relations between the government and the medical profession. We suggest that while the values of privacy, secrecy and a lack of transparency may enhance the PSC's fulfillment of its labour relations mandate, they impede the Committee's successful fulfillment of …

Shooting Ourselves In The Foot: Why Mandatory Reporting Of Gunshot Wounds Is A Bad Idea, Merril Pauls, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

A recent position statement by the Ontario Medical Association’s Section on Emergency Medicine called on the Ontario government to pass a law requiring physicians to report gunshot wounds to police. The Ontario government quickly passed a motion to “introduce legislation to require hospitals and physicians to report gunshot wounds and knife injuries to their local police service.” The goals behind the position statement are laudable: “to assess and reduce immediate public risk and to collect data to inform future prevention strategies.” However, mandating that physicians report gunshot wounds is an ill-conceived response to the problem of gun-related violence. It will …