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Articles 31 - 60 of 107

Full-Text Articles in Medical Jurisprudence

Criminal Law - Insane Persons - Competency To Stand Trial, John H. Hess M.D., Henry B. Pearsall S.Ed., Donald A. Slichter S.Ed., Herbert E. Thomas M.D. May 1961

Criminal Law - Insane Persons - Competency To Stand Trial, John H. Hess M.D., Henry B. Pearsall S.Ed., Donald A. Slichter S.Ed., Herbert E. Thomas M.D.

Michigan Law Review

Mental unsoundness in a person accused of a crime raises two distinct legal questions. One is the question of the individual's responsibility for his behavior and the other is the question of the individual's competency to enter into the legal procedures of trial or punishment. In recent years considerable attention has been given to matters of responsibility, but relatively little attention has been paid to the problem of incompetency and especially to the consequences of incompetency proceedings. In order to analyze and evaluate the operations of the Michigan law in the area of incompetency to stand trial, two psychiatrists joined …


Criminal Law - Insane Persons - Influence Of Mental Illness On The Parole Return Process, David G. Davies S.Ed., John H. Hess M.D. May 1961

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 May 1961

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.


Havard: The Detection Of Secret Homicide, B. J. George Jr. May 1961

Havard: The Detection Of Secret Homicide, B. J. George Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Detection of Secret Homicide. By J. D. J. Havard.


Radiation Injuries And Statistics: The Need For A New Approach To Injury Litigation, Samuel D. Estep Dec 1960

Radiation Injuries And Statistics: The Need For A New Approach To Injury Litigation, Samuel D. Estep

Michigan Law Review

The emphasis given by the mass media of communication to some of the dramatic problems arising from the use of nuclear energy unfortunately has diverted attention from some of the matters about which something can be done by lawyers, administrators, and legislators without the necessity of complicated international negotiations between various parties to the "Cold War." The headlines leave the uninformed, and perhaps often also the informed, public with the impression that even for radiation injuries the important problems all deal with such questions as: (1) Will only a few or many millions of people survive an all-out nuclear war? …


Torts - Obstruction Of A Civil Action - Coercion By A Medical Association To Preclude Availability Of Expert Testimony In A Medical Malpractice Action, William Y. Webb Mar 1960

Torts - Obstruction Of A Civil Action - Coercion By A Medical Association To Preclude Availability Of Expert Testimony In A Medical Malpractice Action, William Y. Webb

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff approached nine physicians in an attempt to secure an expert witness for a medical malpractice action. All nine refused, allegedly as a result of threats by the county medical association to expel them and cause a cancellation of their malpractice liability insurance if they testified. The association's actions stemmed from a finding by its "malpractice committee" that the malpractice defendant had not been negligent. Plaintiff then brought this action against the association to recover compensatory and punitive damages for obstruction of a civil action. On appeal from an order granting a motion for nonsuit, held, affirmed. No cause …


Shartel & Plant: The Law Of Medical Practice, C. W. Muehlberger Mar 1960

Shartel & Plant: The Law Of Medical Practice, C. W. Muehlberger

Michigan Law Review

A Review of THE LAW OF MEDICAL PRACTICE. By Burke Shartel and Marcus L. Plant.


Workmen's Compensation - Occupational Diseases - Radiation Injury Amendment, Vance A. Fisher S.Ed. Dec 1959

Workmen's Compensation - Occupational Diseases - Radiation Injury Amendment, Vance A. Fisher S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The Kansas Workmen's Compensation Act has recently been amended to take more complete account of the complex nature of injuries which might arise through the increased use of radioactive materials and ionizing radiation. The effect of the amendment is twofold. First, it makes more inclusive the definition of radiation injury as an occupational disease by treating "exposure to ionizing radiation" as a cause of compensable injury. Second, it removes all time limitation periods with regard to the giving of notice and the filing of claims and extends the general limitation period from one year from the date of disablement or …


Commitment Of The Mentally Ill: Problems Of Law And Policy, Hugh Alan Ross May 1959

Commitment Of The Mentally Ill: Problems Of Law And Policy, Hugh Alan Ross

Michigan Law Review

A number of recent events makes it timely to reconsider certain aspects of the relation between psychiatry and the law. In the past decade, both the public and the legal profession have been increasingly concerned with the impact of mental illness on the law. In 1952, an outstanding text, Psychiatry and The Law, was published as the joint effort of a lawyer and a psychiatrist. Two years later the Durham case laid down a new test of insanity in criminal cases, rejecting the M'Naghten rule. Interest in the case resulted in a host of law review articles, symposiums, and …


Mental Illness And The Law Of Contracts, Robert M. Brucken S.Ed., David L. Genger S.Ed., Denis T. Rice S.Ed., Mark Shaevsky S.Ed., William R. Slye S.Ed., Robert P. Volpe S.Ed. May 1959

Mental Illness And The Law Of Contracts, Robert M. Brucken S.Ed., David L. Genger S.Ed., Denis T. Rice S.Ed., Mark Shaevsky S.Ed., William R. Slye S.Ed., Robert P. Volpe S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The traditional and most important problem relative to mental illness and the contract is the situation created when mental illness exists at the time of agreement (the problem of contractual capacity). One principal result of mental illness at this time may be the avoidance of the contract by the mentally ill person. Since case law in this area is extensive, the major portion of the study is concerned with this problem (parts II, III and IV) and the effects of such incapacity throughout the remaining course of the contract. Mental illness occurring after agreement and at the time of performance …


Torts - Mental Distress - Recovery Against Original Wrongdoer For Fear Of Cancer Caused By Subsequent Medical Advice, Paul Gerding Mar 1959

Torts - Mental Distress - Recovery Against Original Wrongdoer For Fear Of Cancer Caused By Subsequent Medical Advice, Paul Gerding

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, suffering from bursitis in the right shoulder, received X-ray treatments from defendant physicians. Subsequent thereto, plaintiff's shoulder began to itch, scab, and blister for several years, a condition diagnosed as chronic radiodermatitis caused by the X-ray therapy. Approximately two years after the treatments, plaintiff was examined by a dermatologist who advised her to have her shoulder checked every six months because the area might become cancerous. Plaintiff then developed a severe "cancerphobia," an apprehension that she would ultimately develop cancer from the radiation burn. Plaintiff brought a malpractice suit against defendant physicians, seeking recovery for the physical injury and …


Gair & Cutler: Negligence Cases: Winning Strategy, Marcus L. Plant Apr 1958

Gair & Cutler: Negligence Cases: Winning Strategy, Marcus L. Plant

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Negligence Cases: Winning Strategy. By Harry A. Gair and A. S. Cutler.


Workmen's Compensation - Compensability Of Injuries Resulting From Physical Examinations, Michael M. Lyons Feb 1958

Workmen's Compensation - Compensability Of Injuries Resulting From Physical Examinations, Michael M. Lyons

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a dairy worker, suffered an infection in her left arm as a result of submitting to a Wassermann test as ordered by her employer. The county board of health required dairy workers to take the test as a condition of their employment and the order was issued in pursuance thereof. Plaintiff filed a claim for compensation under the state Workmen's Compensation Act which was rejected by her employer but sustained upon a hearing before the state commission. Defendant's exceptions were overruled on appeal to the superior court. On appeal to the supreme court, held, reversed. The injury did …


Torts - Unauthorized Autopsy - Non-Survival Of Action, Lee H. Snyder Feb 1957

Torts - Unauthorized Autopsy - Non-Survival Of Action, Lee H. Snyder

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's husband was struck and killed by a motorbus owned and operated by defendant municipality. The body was removed to a hospital maintained by defendant. Subsequently, at the request and direction of a physician employed by defendant, an autopsy was performed, apparently to determine whether the deceased had been drinking. During the examination certain organs were removed and destroyed. Plaintiff brought an action for damages on the ground that the mutilation was done without her consent and in violation of her legal right to the possession of the body. Plaintiff died while the action was pending, and her administrator continued …


Weihofen: Mental Disorder As A Criminal Defense, Winfred Overholser M.D. Jun 1955

Weihofen: Mental Disorder As A Criminal Defense, Winfred Overholser M.D.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Mental Disorder as a Criminal Defense. By Henry Weihofen.


Criminal Law - Reexamination Of Tests For Criminal Responsibility, Mary Lee Ryan May 1955

Criminal Law - Reexamination Of Tests For Criminal Responsibility, Mary Lee Ryan

Michigan Law Review

Criminal law in the Anglo-American system of jurisprudence is based upon the concept that persons should be held responsible for their acts. A strong corrollary to this idea is that certain types of persons, namely the "insane," should not be held responsible for criminal conduct. Although this proposition seems beautifully simple, courts in England and the United States for over a hundred years have wrestled with the problem of what constitutes insanity, or, to phrase it more accurately, what type of mental condition should preclude responsibility for a criminal act.


Evidence - Validity Of Statutory Presumption Of Intoxication From A Finding Of 0.15 Percent Concentration Of Alcohol In The Blood, Donald F. Oosterhouse S.Ed. Apr 1955

Evidence - Validity Of Statutory Presumption Of Intoxication From A Finding Of 0.15 Percent Concentration Of Alcohol In The Blood, Donald F. Oosterhouse S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was tried and convicted of the statutory crime of driving an automobile while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. The state introduced into evidence the result of a blood test, voluntarily submitted to by the defendant, which showed 0,20% concentration of alcohol in the defendant's blood. Arizona statutes established a rebuttable presumption of no intoxication if such tests showed a concentration of 0.05%, or less, of alcohol in one's blood, and of intoxication if the tests showed a concentration of 0.15%, or more. Breath, urine, and direct blood tests are authorized by the statute. Defendant argued that the statute …


Workmen's Compensation - Traumatic Neurosis Without Physical Injury, Irving L. Halpern Apr 1955

Workmen's Compensation - Traumatic Neurosis Without Physical Injury, Irving L. Halpern

Michigan Law Review

Appellee and his co-worker attempted to lower a suspended scaffold on which they were standing, whereupon the scaffold gave way and the coworker fell to his death. Appellee suffered only slight bruises on his leg, but as a result of seeing his fellow employee fall to his death, he sustained severe fright and shock which resulted in a traumatic neurosis preventing him from engaging in the normal duties of his occupation. The lower court awarded appellee judgment for permanent partial disability under the Texas Workmen's Compensation Law. On appeal, held, reversed. Appellee's condition was a mental disease and compensable …


Hospitalization Of The Voluntary Mental Patient, Hugh A. Ross Jan 1955

Hospitalization Of The Voluntary Mental Patient, Hugh A. Ross

Michigan Law Review

In 1949, the last year for which accurate statistics are available, 390,567 persons were admitted to mental hospitals in the United States. Total annual cost of mental illness, including loss of earnings, has been estimated to be over a billion dollars a year. Although the problems involved in admission of the mentally ill patient to a hospital are usually thought of in terms of formal involuntary commitment proceedings, there is an increasing awareness of the desirability of provision for voluntary procedures which would encourage prompt and effective medical care. Voluntary admission is not a form of commitment, although it may …


Torts - Liability Of Physician Erroneously Certifying Insanity, Richard Z. Rosenfeld Jan 1955

Torts - Liability Of Physician Erroneously Certifying Insanity, Richard Z. Rosenfeld

Michigan Law Review

A physician certified plaintiff to be insane, when in fact she was sane; she was thereafter committed to a state sanitarium. Upon her release, she sued the physician for negligence in examination. Defendant's demurrer for failure to state a cause of action was sustained. On appeal, held, affirmed. Quoting almost the entirety of an analogous 1900 decision from the same jurisdiction, the court held that defendant had owed no duty to plaintiff. Because the administration of the law "should not be obstructed by the fears of physicians that they may render themselves liable to suit," certifying physicians "should be …


Evidence - Statutory Rape - Right Of Accused To Compulsory Blood Test Of Prosecutrix And Child, Edward Pastucha S.Ed. Dec 1954

Evidence - Statutory Rape - Right Of Accused To Compulsory Blood Test Of Prosecutrix And Child, Edward Pastucha S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was convicted of statutory rape on the strength of complaining witness' uncorroborated testimony. Testimony of the prosecutrix was to the effect that she had had sexual relations with defendant only once, that she had become pregnant and had given birth to a child prior to the trial, and that she had had sexual relations with no other men. Defendant moved for an order requiring that blood tests be taken of the child and the mother. The motion was denied. On appeal, held, affirmed. Assuming power, absent statute, to compel the taking of blood-grouping tests, the trial court did …


Guttmacher & Weihofen: Psychiatry And The Law., Morris Ploscowe Dec 1953

Guttmacher & Weihofen: Psychiatry And The Law., Morris Ploscowe

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Psychiatry and the Law. By Manfred. S. Guttmacher and Henry Weihofen.


Torts-Malpractice-Duty Of Drugless Healer To Refrain From Or Discontinue Treatment, Morton L. Simons Mar 1951

Torts-Malpractice-Duty Of Drugless Healer To Refrain From Or Discontinue Treatment, Morton L. Simons

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a drugless healer licensed under statute as a sanipractor, undertook to treat plaintiff for what both parties realized was diabetes. Defendant followed standard sanipractic procedure, prescribing diets and baths. The treatment was unsuccessful, and plaintiff's health deteriorated greatly. Apparently on the theory that a sanipractor incurs no liability if he follows the accepted methods of his school, the trial court, notwithstanding jury's verdict for plaintiff, rendered judgment for defendant. On appeal, held, reversed and remanded, with directions to enter judgment on the verdict Where a drugless healer knows or should know that his method of treatment is not …


Negligence-Liability Of Hospital For Suicide Of Patient, Richard Darger Mar 1951

Negligence-Liability Of Hospital For Suicide Of Patient, Richard Darger

Michigan Law Review

Decedent, a patient in the advanced stages of labor awaiting transfer from the labor room to the delivery room of defendant hospital, opened a window, unhooked the screen and jumped or fell to her death below. It was assumed by the court that death was caused by intrapartum psychosis, a condition which plaintiff claimed was recognized by the medical profession as a hazard of childbirth. Decedent had exhibited no unusual symptoms and had previously been through two normal pregnancies. The jury was allowed to find defendant negligent in not providing for constant attendance and in failing to bar the window …


Practice And Procedure-Third-Party Practice-Subrogation And Contribution- Right Of Defendant To Join Physician Who Aggravated Lnjuries, Richard B. Gushée S.Ed. Dec 1950

Practice And Procedure-Third-Party Practice-Subrogation And Contribution- Right Of Defendant To Join Physician Who Aggravated Lnjuries, Richard B. Gushée S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A brought an action against B for injuries suffered in an automobile accident and aggravation of those injuries by the negligent treatment of a physician, D. B filed a third-party complaint against D for malpractice contending that D was liable over to him for all or a part of the judgment recovered by A. D's motion to dismiss the third-party complaint for want of a sufficient cause of action was denied. On appeal, held, affirmed. A tort-feasor who has been held liable for injuries is subrogated to any right of action which the injured party may …


Criminal Law-Proof Of The Corpus Delicti By The Use Of Extra-Judicial Confessions, Theodore Sachs Jun 1950

Criminal Law-Proof Of The Corpus Delicti By The Use Of Extra-Judicial Confessions, Theodore Sachs

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a physician, was accused of the murder of his cancer-ridden patient by the injection of 40 c.c. of air into a vein of the patient's arm shortly before her death. The defendant had noted on the patient's medical chart the fact of the injection and that of her death, apparently a few minutes later. He subsequently dictated the same facts to his nurse, and later made similar admissions to local enforcement authorities and others making such statements on the day of his arrest and immediately thereafter. At the trial, a pathologist, called as an expert witness on behalf of …


Problems Of Proof In Claims For Recovery For Dermatitis, Louis Schwartz Apr 1943

Problems Of Proof In Claims For Recovery For Dermatitis, Louis Schwartz

Michigan Law Review

This article will consider, first, occupational dermatitis, and, second, dermatitis from wearing apparel and cosmetics.


Scientific Proof And Relations Of Law And Medicine, John E. Tracy Apr 1943

Scientific Proof And Relations Of Law And Medicine, John E. Tracy

Michigan Law Review

Ever since lawyers first began the practice of employing expert witnesses in cases where there were questions of fact to be determined, involving the existence and extent and the causes of bodily ailments, these experts-physicians, surgeons, anatomists, chemists, pathologists, and roentgenologists-have been generous in their proffering of advice to the practicing attorney as to the matters to which his preparation for trial should be directed, the proper theories to be adopted by him as to recovery or damages and his methods of examining and cross-examining witnesses of this character. The shelves of any large law library will be found to …


Medical Facts That Can And Cannot Be Proved By X-Ray: Historical Review And Present Possibilities, Samuel W. Donaldson Apr 1943

Medical Facts That Can And Cannot Be Proved By X-Ray: Historical Review And Present Possibilities, Samuel W. Donaldson

Michigan Law Review

As the science of the practice of medicine has progressed, new discoveries have brought out newer methods of diagnosis and treatment. With the discovery of x-rays by Professor Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895, an entirely new field was opened. The growth of this new field of medical radiology has been unusually rapid and of great importance. Radiology embraces the use of x-rays, radium, and other radioactive substances. Roentgenology is a division of radiology in that it is limited to the use of the Roentgen rays or x-rays, and medical roentgenology may be termed as the use of x-rays for the diagnosis …


Evidence - Admissibility Of Hospital Records As Business Entries, Robert C. Lovejoy May 1942

Evidence - Admissibility Of Hospital Records As Business Entries, Robert C. Lovejoy

Michigan Law Review

As a defense to a suit on an insurance policy, the defendant insurer claimed that the plaintiff was intoxicated at the time of the fatal accident. Defendant offered in evidence a portion of the case record of the hospital to which plaintiff was taken after the accident, the record stating that he was "apparently well under influence of alcohol." Although it was duly authenticated under the federal statute permitting business entries to be used as evidence, this evidence was excluded by the trial court as being an observation rather than a diagnosis. Held, reversed. There was no basis for …