Medical Jurisprudence Commons^™

Systemic Failures In Health Care Oversight, Julie L. Campbell

Georgia Law Review

Hospitals are intentionally shirking their duty to identify and report incompetent medical practitioners, and it is causing catastrophic injuries to patients. Why are hospitals doing this? Two decades of health care reforms have changed the way physicians and hospitals interact in the U.S. health care system, and as a result, the traditional health care oversight tools no longer work to ensure physician competence. With three out of four physicians now employees of hospitals or health care systems, hospitals have become the guardians of both the internal and external warning systems designed to flag incompetent practitioners. As the guardians, hospitals are …

Diversity In Mdl Leadership: A Field Guide, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

Multidistrict litigation (MDL) includes some of the most high-profile torts of our day—opioids, talc, RoundUp, to name a few—but the attorneys who spearhead these proceedings often look a lot like they did fifty years ago: predominately white and predominately male.

A debate has emerged over whether attorneys best positioned to fill MDL leadership roles are the grizzled repeat players who appear time and again—and who are largely white, older, and male—or newcomers with fresh ideas and energy who may not always look like their predecessors. And if diversity is important, what kind of diversity matters?

In this short essay, I …

Mdl Revolution, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, Abbe Gluck

Scholarly Works

Over the past 50 years, multidistrict litigation (MDL) has quietly revolutionized civil procedure. MDLs include the largest tort cases in U.S. history, but without the authority of the class-action rule, MDL judges—who formally have only pretrial jurisdiction over individual cases—have resorted to extraordinary procedural exceptionalism to settle cases on a national scale. Substantive state laws, personal jurisdiction, transparency, impartiality, reviewability, federalism, and adequate representation must all yield if doing so fulfills that one goal.

Somehow, until now, this has remained below the surface to everyone but MDL insiders. Thanks to the sprawling MDL over the opioid crisis—and unprecedented opposition to …

Information For The Common Good In Mass Torts, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, Alexandra D. Lahav

Scholarly Works

In recent years, judges have privileged confidentiality over transparency in discovery, especially in large scale multidistrict litigation such as the Opiate litigation. By uncovering the assumptions underlying our current regime, this Article sheds light on the process that got us here as a first step towards re-envisioning the rules governing information in litigation. We investigate an untold history of discovery’s publicity to show that many of our assumptions about what is public and what is private is historically contingent, even accidental. So too are our assumptions about the best way to arrive at truth.

Accordingly, we suggest that courts ought …

Placebo Patents: Creating Stronger Intellectual Property Protection For Pharmaceuticals Approved By The U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Sarah Renee Craig

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Digital Medicine, The Fda, And The First Amendment, Adam Candeub

Georgia Law Review

Digital medicine might transform healthcare more fundamentally than the introduction of anesthesia or germ basis theory of disease. Already, tens of thousands of "medical apps" are available for smartphones. These computer applications can measure blood pressure, pulse, lung function, oxygenation level, sugar level, breathing rate and body temperature-and can even diagnose skin cancer, analyze urine, and take an echocardiogram. In fall 2013, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) asserted regulatory authority over mobile medical applications and other digital medical services, threatening to chill, if not, destroy this innovation. This Article argues that the FDA stands on firm legal ground regulating medical …

Momma Drama: A Study Of How Canada's National Regulation Of Surrogacy Compares To Australia's Independent State Regulation Of Surrogacy, Ailis L. Burpee

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Preemption Without Borders: The Modern Conflation Of Tort And Contract Liabilities, Max N. Helveston

Georgia Law Review

Medical device jurisprudence has taken a turn for the worse recently, turning a deaf ear to patients who have been injured or killed by devices and covertly expanding the boundaries of federal preemption in ways that threaten fundamental contractual principles. Ever since the Court's holding in Riegel v. Medtronic, district and appellate courts have effectively immunized the manufacturers of certain devices from contract, as well as tort, liabilities. The lower courts' rulings are not only

problematic as a matter of law, but raise novel concerns about federal regulatory preemption undermining individuals' contract rights. A comprehensive analysis of the Court's medical …

Ensuring Government Accountability During Public Health Emergencies, Fazal Khan

Scholarly Works

The main argument of this Article is that the gravest threat to civil liberties during a public health emergency (PHE) stems from federal powers premised on post-9/11 national security justifications, not putative state powers under the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA). While I concur with earlier assessments that the MSEHPA is seriously flawed and that PHEs should be construed as primarily federal issues, going forward, more critical attention needs to be focused on the federal role during PHEs as the initially alarming MSEHPA appears to be more of a paper tiger. First, as the responses to Hurricane Katrina …

Paying Women For Their Eggs For Use In Stem Cell Research, Pamela Foohey

Scholarly Works

On June 11, 2009, the Empire State Stem Cell Board (“Board”), which administers the $600 million in New York State funds allotted to stem cell research, voted to allocate a portion of those funds to compensate women up to $10,000 for “donating” their eggs for use in stem cell research. The Board's decision makes New York the first state to affirmatively allow state funds to be used to compensate women for providing their eggs for use in stem cell research beyond mere reimbursement of associated medical and other expenses, and, similarly, distinguishes it from most international countries, which either prohibit …

State Of Emergency: Why Georgia's Standard Of Care In Emergency Rooms Is Harmful To Your Health, Jason R. Graves

Georgia Law Review

Patients injured by medical negligence have historically
been able to recover for the injuries they sustained. In
2005, however, the Georgia General Assembly passed
Georgia Senate Bill 3, which gave virtual immunity to
emergency room doctors and those practicing in obstetrics
wards. The Bill requires a showing of gross negligence by
clear and convincing evidence to prevail on a medical
malpractice claim against those protected by the statute.
The law prevents injured patients who cannot meet this
standard from recovering any damages, even
compensation for medical bills arising from the negligent
act. The legislature enacted the Bill in an effort …

Paging King Solomon: Towards Allowing Parents To Donate Organs Of Anencephalic Infants, Fazal Khan, Brian Lea

Scholarly Works

In October of 1987, Canadian doctors artificially sustained the life of an anencephalic infant so that her organs could be transplanted into another child, touching off a fiery debate. At the request of her parents, doctors connected Baby Gabrielle, who was born missing most of her brain, to a respirator before flying her to Loma Linda, California, where her heart was transplanted into the world's youngest recipient of a heart transplant. While Baby Gabrielle's parents insisted that their daughter's organs be used in this manner and were presumably happy with the resulting transplant, one of Baby Gabrielle's doctors expressed qualms …

Amicus Brief, Lebron V. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, Neil Vidmar, Tom Baker, Ralph L. Brill, Martha Chamallas, Stephen Daniels, Thomas A. Eaton, Theodore Eisenberg, Neal R. Feigenson, Lucinda M. Finley, Marc Galanter, Valerie P. Hans, Michael Heise, Edward J. Kionka, Thomas H. Koenig, Herbert M. Kritzer, David I. Levine, Nancy S. Marder, Joanne Martin, Frank M. Mcclellan, Deborah Jones Merritt, Philip G. Peters, Jr., James T. Richardson, Charles Silver, Richard W. Wright

Scholarly Works

Illinois Public Act 82-280, § 2-1706.5, as amended by P.A. 94-677, § 330 (eff. Aug. 25, 2005), and as codified as 735 ILCS 5/2-1706.5(a), imposes a $500,000 “cap” on the noneconomic damages that may be awarded in a medical malpractice suit against a physician or other health care professional, and a $1 million “cap” on the noneconomic damages that may be awarded against a hospital, its affiliates, or their employees.

This brief will address two of the questions presented for review by the parties:

1. Does the cap violate the Illinois Constitution’s prohibition on “special legislation,” Art. IV, § 3, …

The Human Factor: Globalizing Ethical Standards In Drug Trials Through Market Exclusion, Fazal Khan

Scholarly Works

Given the tremendous financial reward that a blockbuster therapy might generate, there are strong incentives to move drug research and development to developing countries, which have minimal ethical guidelines and little transparency. The danger in this race for the prize--or for the bottom--is the exploitation of subaltern populations that have little legal recourse to hold drug companies accountable for the harm that those populations suffer as a result of unethical clinical trials. In other words, the drug industry is acutely aware that there is a minimal threat of costly civil suits and criminal sanctions for their ethical violations in impoverished …

Bionormativity And The Construction Of Parenthood, Katharine K. Baker

Georgia Law Review

This Article explores the relationship between legal and biological parenthood. It examines how neither history, nor biology, nor moral philosophy dictate a legal regime in which parenthood must be based on biological connection, but that attractionto a biological (or"bionormative")regime remains strong. In explaining why, it suggests that much of what attracts people to bionormativity is not biology itself, but the way in which a biological regime constructs parenthood as a private, exclusive, and binary enterprise. It is these ancillary qualities of bionormativity that people may care the most about. Today, a variety of forces put pressure on these ancillary qualities …

Medical Tourism: Symptom Or Cure?, Kerrie S. Howze

Georgia Law Review

"Medical tourism" is the phrase used to describe the phenomenon whereby patients travel to a foreign country to consume medical services. This practice has gained momentum in recent years, largely due to accessibility and affordability issues plaguing the U.S. healthcare system. Notably, medical tourism has progressed from being only an option considered by uninsured or under-insured individuals to an option considered by employers as a means of reducing the cost of employee health benefits. This Note examines the medical tourism practice and discusses potential problems with the practice, specifically the lack of remedy in case of medical negligence. Although medical …

Reconsidering The Medical Expert Witness System, Yunwei Jiang

LLM Theses and Essays

The expert witness is indispensable in a medical malpractice case. However, there are three main defects in the currently existing expert witness system. One is incompetence of expert witnesses. Another is professional negligence of expert witnesses. The other is dishonesty of expert witnesses. To make the expert witness system more efficient, this article examines currently existing rules and offers some proposals regarding the three issues. For the first one, the suggestion of this article is to rely on the standards of expert qualification and admitting expert testimony. For the second one, this article distinguishes expert witnesses from lay witnesses, and …

Redefining Physicians' Duties: An Argument For Eliminating The Physician-Patient Relationship Requirement In Actions For Medical Malpractice, Patrick D. Blake

Georgia Law Review

Nearly every state requires a patient to prove the existence of a formal physician-patient relationship in order to proceed with a claim for medical malpractice. In the absence of such a relationship, a physician's actions are measured by an ordinary negligence standard instead of the professional standard of care. Because courts have traditionally held that independent medical examinations, such as pre-employment health screenings, do not give rise to formal physician-patient relationships, individuals undergoing these examinations have been prevented from bringing malpractice claims against physicians who fail to disclose important health information detected during the examination. Recently, a small number of …

Balancing Interests: Statute Of Limitations And Repose In Medical Malpractice Cases, Laurie L. Paterson

LLM Theses and Essays

In the 1970s a crisis occurred in the medical malpractice insurance industry. As tort law began to favor plaintiffs, the number and severity of medical malpractice claims increased. Insurance companies inundated with a deluge of claims correspondingly increased their premiums or pulled out of the malpractice insurance industry all together. Some physicians were unable to obtain medical malpractice insurance and others were faced with as much as a 300% rise in insurance premiums. As a result, the medical profession urged states to enact medical malpractice tort reform. Some states’ tort reform included legislation such as award caps, collateral source offset, …

Georgia's Professional Malpractice Affidavit Requirement, Robert D. Brussack

Scholarly Works

Section 9-11-9.1 of the Georgia Code might be the state's most notorious procedural statute. Enacted in 1987 to protect professionals against the harm done by groundless malpractice litigation, the statute provides that a professional malpractice claim ordinarily must be accompanied by an affidavit executed by an expert. In the affidavit, the expert must substantiate the claim by attesting that some act or omission alleged in the claim was a negligent act or omission--a departure from a professional standard of conduct. During the past decade, Georgia's appellate courts have returned again and again to the problem of what section 9-11-9.1 means, …

Implementation And Impact Of The Patient Self-Determination Act, Denise C. Park, Thomas A. Eaton, Edward J. Larson, Helen T. Palmer

Scholarly Works

The Patient Self-Determination Act became effective in December 1991 and mandates that patients be given information about legal rights regarding living wills and durable powers of attorney for health care. We investigated the impact this law has had on hospitals, medical personnel, and patients. We conducted a survey of all hospitals in the state of Georgia, collecting data regarding implementation and knowledge of the law, as well as effects of the law and beliefs about it. The data indicated that hospitals relied primarily on the Georgia Hospital Association for implementation policy, that "minimalist" implementation of the law occurs in most …

"In The Twinkling Of An Eye": A Proporsal For The Standard Of Legality To Be Applied In Hospital Staff Privileges Cases, Sarah Bartholomew Ellerbee

LLM Theses and Essays

This paper addresses one of the most troublesome aspects of antitrust jurisprudence. What standard of legality governs cases dealing with medical staff privileges decisions? Heretofore, it was generally thought that only two options existed. The most frequently used standard of legality for this type of case is the rule of reason. In using this analysis, the court looks at the restraint of trade of the reasonableness of its nature, and its purpose and effect. The pro-competitive aspects of the conduct are weighed against the restraints that the conduct imposes on the competition. In health care cases, courts have looked at …

Experimenting With The "Right To Die" In The Laboratory Of The States, Thomas A. Eaton, Edward J. Larson

Scholarly Works

The purposes of this Article are twofold. Our first purpose is to reexamine the legal foundations of a patient's right to refuse treatment. The Court's equivocal handling of the federal constitutional issues in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health invites a closer look at state constitutional, statutory and common law. The source of the underlying right will affect state experimentation with substantive and procedural rules in this area. Our second purpose is to describe the current status of the states' experiments with the right to die. That is, we elaborate in more detail on the state constitutional, statutory and …

The Regulation Of Medical Devices: A Comparative Study Of American And Eec Law, Martine Carliese Pijnappels

LLM Theses and Essays

Part I of this thesis will describe the regulation of medical devices in the EEC. Before coming to the actual medical device legislation, a description of the legislative system in Europe will be given, to the extent that it is relevant for the Directives on medical devices. After dealing with the history of Directives and their current contents, the status of the Directives and their future prospects will be discussed. Part II will deal with the regulation of medical devices in the United States under the Food Drug & Cosmetic Act as amended by Medical Device Amendments of 1976. First, …

Human Gene Therapy And The Law: An Introduction To The Literature, Edward J. Larson

Scholarly Works

This essay will review introductory selections on the law of human gene therapy in the context of four common starting points: the discovery of DNA structure, past efforts to regulate genetic engineering, America's experience with eugenics, and historical, constitutional, or cultural values.

Immunity Doctrine, Efficiency Promotion, And The Applicability Of Federal Antitrust Law To State-Approved Hospital Acquisitions, James F. Ponsoldt

Scholarly Works

The question whether hospitals should be regarded as private businesses, or alternatively as public utilities, in order to maximize productive and allocative efficiency, remains controversial. In recent years, the ability of American hospitals and doctors to provide excellent health care services has been hindered by rising costs and distribution problems. This combination of rising costs and decreased distribution has prevented medical services from reaching the portion of the American population that has the greatest need for these services.

In response to these problems, Congress in 1974 passed the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act (NHPRDA). The NHPRDA is designed …

Res Ipsa Loquitur And Medical Malpractice In Georgia: A Reassessment, Thomas A. Eaton

Scholarly Works

Part II of this Article addresses the threshold issue of when a court may consider a medical accident as one that ordinarily does not occur in the absence of negligence. This part criticizes the blanket rejection of res ipsa loquitur in Georgia malpractice opinions. Judicial hostility toward res ipsa loquitur in these cases is based in large part on a misunderstanding of the so-called presumption of due care. This part then explains how an inference of negligence may be harmonized with traditional fault-based malpractice doctrine. Finally, this part addresses judicial concerns about the sufficiency of evidence. It is argued that …

"Body-Snatching" Reconsidered: The Exhumation Of Some Early American Legal History, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

The "heroic age of anatomy" in America was that era, prior to the general enactment of laws legalizing the procurement of cadavers for medical purposes, during which students of medicine (as well as profit-seeking professionals) resorted to the illegal practice of "body-snatching" in order to obtain dissection material for medical studies. This period, which extended form the late seventeenth to well into the nineteenth century, was marked by frequent riots resulting from a deep-rooted public hostility towards grave-robbing and dissection. This hostility was rarely tempered by any understanding of or sympathy for the purposes for which the "resurrectionists," as they …