Medical Jurisprudence Commons^™

Gardasil A Year Later: Cervical Cancer As A Model For Inequality Of Access To Health Services, Micah Globerson

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

This article updates a prior feminist legal analysis of Gardasil, the vaccine against Human Papillomavirus ("HPV"), in light of new developments. Recent discoveries confirming that HPV poses threats to men led Merck & Co. ("Merck") to apply for FDA approval to market Gardasil to males. These developments have renewed focus on the recurring question of whether making Gardasil vaccination a prerequisite for boys' school participation will arouse the same public condemnation that resulted from the prior mandate targeting girls. Another new development involves a vaccine panel recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control ("CDC") that inadvertently resulted in a policy …

Can Patent Protections Trample Civil Liberties? The Aclu Challenges The Patentability Of Breast Cancer Genes, Ann Weilbaecher

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Who Says You're Disabled? The Role Of Medical Evidence In The Ada Definition Of Disability, Deirdre M. Smith

Faculty Publications

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), enacted by Congress seventeen years ago, offered disabled people a hope of equality and access that has not been fulfilled. ¹ Court decisions halt an overwhelming majority of claims, particularly in the employment context, at the summary judgment stage. ² A key mechanism for fencing out disabled people's claims is the pernicious requirement, based upon the very construction of disability that the ADA's proponents aimed to dispel, that medical evidence is required as a threshold matter to demonstrate that the plaintiff is entitled to seek protection under the statute. ³ The medical evidence requirement …

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Medical Torture: End Of Life Decision-Making In The United Kingdom And United States, Jon D. Feldhammer

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The note examines the legal and ethical challenges surrounding end-of-life medical decisions in the United States and the United Kingdom, highlighting the failure of both countries to effectively implement patients' end-of-life plans. It argues that the current legal frameworks in both nations often lead to prolonged, painful, and futile medical treatments, violating patient dignity and human rights. The analysis critiques the lack of consensus on medical futility and proposes a legislative model to balance patient autonomy, physician discretion, and ethical medical practice.

Hedonic Damages, Hedonic Adaptation, And Disability, Samuel R. Bagenstos, Margo Schlanger

ExpressO

This article contributes to the broad debate over “adaptive preferences” in law, economics, and political philosophy by addressing an important ongoing controversy in tort law. Hedonic damages compensate for the lost enjoyment of life that results from a tortious injury. Lawyers seeking hedonic damages in personal injury cases emphasize their clients’ new status as compromised and damaged persons, and courts frequently uphold jury verdicts awarding hedonic damages to individuals who experienced disabling injuries based on a view that disability necessarily limits one’s enjoyment of life. This view is consonant with a general societal understanding of disability as a tragedy and …

In Sickness, Health, And Cyberspace: Protecting The Security Of Electronic Private Health Information, Sharona Hoffman, Andy Podgurski

ExpressO

The electronic processing of health information provides considerable benefits to patients and health care providers at the same time that it creates serious risks to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the data. The Internet provides a conduit for rapid and uncontrolled dispersion and trafficking of illicitly-obtained private health information, with far-reaching consequences to the unsuspecting victims. In order to address such threats to electronic private health information, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services enacted the HIPAA Security Rule, which thus far has received little attention in the legal literature. This article presents a critique of the Security …

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Finding New Constitutional Rights Through The Supreme Court’S Evolving “Government Purpose” Test Under Minimum Scrutiny, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

By now we all are familiar with the litany of cases which refused to find elevated scrutiny for so-called “affirmative” or “social” rights such as education, welfare or housing: Lindsey v. Normet, San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez, Dandridge v. Williams, DeShaney v. Winnebago County. There didn’t seem to be anything in minimum scrutiny which could protect such facts as education or housing, from government action. However, unobtrusively and over the years, the Supreme Court has clarified and articulated one aspect of minimum scrutiny which holds promise for vindicating facts. You will recall that under minimum scrutiny government’s action is …

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

“Racially-Tailored” Medicine Unraveled, Sharona Hoffman

ExpressO

In June 2005, the FDA approved BiDil, a heart failure medication that is labeled for use only by African-Americans and thus, is the first treatment of its kind. The drug likely portends a future of growing interest in “race-based” medicine. This phenomenon is emerging at the same time that scientists, in light of the Human Genome Project, are reaching an understanding that “race” has no biological meaning, and consequently, “racially-tailored” medicine is both puzzling and troubling.

This Article explores the reasons for the new focus on “racial-profiling” in medicine. It analyzes the risks and dangers of this approach, including medical …

Pursuing Justice For The Mentally Disabled, Grant H. Morris

University of San Diego Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series

This article considers whether lawyers act as zealous advocates when they represent mentally disordered, involuntarily committed patients who wish to assert their right to refuse treatment with psychotropic medication. After discussing a study that clearly demonstrates that lawyers do not do so, the article explores the reasons for this inappropriate behavior. Michael Perlin characterizes the problem as “sanism,” which he describes as an irrational prejudice against mentally disabled persons of the same quality and character as other irrational prejudices that cause and are reflected in prevailing social attitudes of racism, sexism, homophobia, and ethnic bigotry. The article critiques Perlin’s characterization …

Intersex And Intrasex Debates: Building Alliances To Challenge Sex Discrimination, Julie A. Greenberg

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article discusses the challenges faced by the intersex movement in challenging medical protocols for intersex infants and the debates within the movement regarding treatment approaches. It highlights the importance of forming alliances with other social justice movements, such as feminists and LGBT organizations, to effectively combat sex discrimination. The article proposes using a gender nonconformity theory, as recognized in legal cases like Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, to unify these groups in their fight against discrimination.

Is It Too Late For Title Vi Enforcement? - Seeking Redemption Of The Unequal United States' Long Term Care System Through International Means, Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

Permeating every facet of life including health care, racial segregation has been a part of the history of the United States since its creation. In fact, the history of African-Americans has been one of tragedy, laced with the hope of equality. This tragedy is a result of three hundred years of slavery, one hundred years of the limited freedom of segregation, three years of the promise of equality granted from the civil rights struggle, and thirty-seven years of resegregation through white flight and institutional racism. Hence, African-Americans have been fighting for the right to freedom, equality, and human dignity for …

Mental Disorder And The Civil/Criminal Distinction, Grant H. Morris

University of San Diego Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series

This essay, written as part of a symposium issue to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the University of San Diego Law School, discusses the evaporating distinction between sentence-serving convicts and mentally disordered nonconvicts who are involved in, or who were involved in, the criminal process–people we label as both bad and mad. By examining one Supreme Court case from each of the decades that follow the opening of the University of San Diego School of Law, the essay demonstrates how the promise that nonconvict mentally disordered persons would be treated equally with other civilly committed mental patients was made and …

Competency To Stand Trial On Trial, Grant H. Morris, Ansar M. Haroun, David Naimark

University of San Diego Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series

This Article considers the legal standards for the determination of competency to stand trial, and whether those standards are understood and applied by psychiatrists and psychologists in the forensic evaluations they perform and in the judgments they make–judgments that are routinely accepted by trial courts as their own judgments. The Article traces the historical development of the competency construct and the development of two competency standards. One standard, used today in eight states that contain 25% of the population of the United States, requires that the defendant be able to assist counsel in the conduct of a defense “in a …

The Alley Behind First Street, Northeast: Criminal Abortion In The Nation's Capital 1873-1973, Douglas R. Miller

ExpressO

The thirtieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade found our country no less divided over abortion than it was during the era of its prohibition. As the bitter struggle over judicial nominations throughout the present administration suggests, abortion’s future remains at the forefront of American political debate.

In their push for increased limitations, abortion opponents generally overlook the historical consequences of prohibition. Abortion rights proponents often invoke history in their opposition to new restrictions, but tend to do so superficially, and only in a manner that supports their position.

This article attempts a more complex study of criminal abortion’s legal and …

The Cocaine Vaccine, Dru Stevenson

ExpressO

The controversial new cocaine vaccine (TA-CD) has the potential to be an extremely effective treatment tool for recovering addicts, but it also presents opportunities for non-therapeutic uses, such as preventing cocaine use in the first place. It is foreseeable that the cocaine vaccine could become a condition of parole or probation, or receiving welfare payments, or for employment in certain occupations. Universal vaccination is also a possibility but less likely for political reasons. This article investigates each of these areas of potential use. Any setting where mandatory drug testing is currently in place could become a venue for the vaccination. …

Gay And Lesbian Rights To Procreate And Access To Assisted Reproductive Technology, John A. Robertson

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Rights Of Embryo And Foetus In Private Law, Timothy Stoltzfus Jost

Scholarly Articles

This article summarizes the rights of the embryo and fetus under American law. It was presented as a country report at the World Congress on Comparative Law, and is written primarily for a non U.S. audience. It examines, for example, the legal position of the embryo and fetus with respect to their parents, issues in research involving embryos and fetuses, remedies for torts or crimes against an embryo or fetus, and issues involving stem cell research.

Genetically Defective: The Judicial Interpretation Of The Americans With Disabilities Act Fails To Protect Against Genetic Discrimination In The Workplace, 35 J. Marshall L. Rev. 457 (2002), Brian M. Holt

UIC Law Review

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 …

The Reasons So Many People Support Physician-Assisted Suicide - And Why These Reasons Are Not Convincing, Yale Kamisar

Articles

It would be hard to deny that there is a great deal of support in this country-and ever-growing support-for legalizing physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Why is this so? I believe there are a considerable number of reasons. In this article, I shall discuss five common reasons and explain why I do not find any of them convincing.

Criminalization As A Policy Response To A Public Health Crisis, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 435 (1994), J. Kelly Strader

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hiv-Aids In The 1990s Aids Law Symposium: Legal, Ethical, And Policy Issues: Introduction, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 239 (1994), Michael L. Closen

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Aids: Law, Public Policy, And The Continuing Work Of The American Bar Association, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 273 (1994), Barry Sullivan

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Doctors, Aids, And Confidentiality In The 1990s, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 331 (1994), Sheila Taub

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

If I Tell You, Will You Treat Me, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 363 (1994), Mauro A. Montoya Jr.

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Americans With Disabilities Act And Refusals To Provide Medical Care To Persons With Hiv/Aids, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 347 (1994), Jack P. Desario, James D. Slack

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Aids And Funeral Homes: Common Legal Issues Facing Funeral Directors, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 411 (1994), Mark E. Wojcik

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.