Medical Jurisprudence Commons^™

While Ignorance May Not Be Bliss, It Is A Mother's Right: Constitutional Implications Of Testing Newborn Babies For Hiv, Julie D. Levinson

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article examines the constitutional implications of mandatory HIV testing for newborns, arguing that such policies infringe upon women's rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. It critiques two proposed bills for being overly intrusive and not narrowly tailored, advocating instead for voluntary testing and counseling to balance public health with individual rights.

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 …

Beyond Autonomy: Coercion And Morality In Clinical Relationships, Maxwell Gregg Bloche

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article considers the problem of line-drawing between autonomy-preserving and autonomy-negating influence in clinical relationships. The author’s purpose is not to propose particular boundaries, either with respect to reproductive decisions by HIV-infected women or for other clinical choices. Rather, he attempts to shed some light on what drives our disputes about whether one or another influence method is compatible with autonomous choice.

The author argues that such disagreements reflect underlying conflicts between normative commitments, and that resolving these conflicts is essential to settling controversies over whether particular influences unduly interfere with autonomous choice. Alternative understandings of the prerequisites for autonomous …

It Started With Quinlan: The Ever Expanding 'Right To Die', Yale Kamisar

Articles

Few rallying cries sound more straightforward than the "right to die"-but few are more fuzzy or more misunderstood. This becomes all too evident when comparing the right-to-die decision handed down by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month and the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision in the Karen Ann Quinlan case twenty years ago. At different times, the "right to die" has embraced significantly different rights. On March 6, in Compassion in Dying v. Washington State, the Ninth Circuit held that because a Washington state statute prohibiting assisted suicide prevents physicians from providing assistance to competent, terminally …

Physician Assisted Suicide: A Bad Idea, 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. I shall discuss five common reasons - and explain why I do not find any of them convincing.

The 'Right To Die': On Drawing (And Erasing) Lines, Yale Kamisar

Articles

Until this year, no state or federal appellate court had ever held that there was a right to assisted suicide no matter how narrow the circumstances or stringent the conditions. In 1996, however, within the span of a single month, two federal courts of appeals so held; in an 8-3 majority of the Ninth Circuit (sitting en banc) in Compassion in Dying v. Washington and a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit in Quill v. Vacco. What heartened proponents of a right to physician-assisted suicide even more, and pleased those resistant to the idea even less, was that the two …

An Introduction To “Mandatory Hiv Screening Of Newborns: A Child’S Welfare In Conflict With Its Mother’S Constitutional Rights?” - False Dichotomies Make Bad Law., Paris R. Baldacci

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article examines the contentious issue of mandatory HIV screening of newborns, highlighting the false dichotomy often presented in the debate between the welfare of the child and the constitutional rights of the mother. It argues that this dichotomy oversimplifies the complex legal, medical, and ethical considerations involved, leading to ineffective public policy. The article emphasizes the need for a more holistic approach that balances medical interventions with respect for individual rights and addresses the broader societal and structural factors affecting HIV-infected mothers and their children.

An Argument For Universal Pediatric Hiv Testing, Counseling And Treatment, Colin Crawford

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that mandatory pediatric HIV testing, counseling, and treatment are essential to address a public health emergency, overriding constitutional concerns. The author, Colin Crawford, asserts that early detection and treatment significantly improve the lives of HIV-positive children, making it a compelling state interest that should take precedence over privacy and autonomy concerns.

Contingency Fee Abuses, Ethical Mandates, And The Disciplinary System: The Case Against Case-By-Case Enforcement, Lester Brickman

Articles

Contingency fee abuses are attracting increased public attention. Particular interest is focused on the enormous contingency fees generated by mass tort litigation; in some cases, lawyers are collecting multi-million dollar fees essentially for performing paralegal work. In addition, the relationship between the availability of enormous contingency fees and the amassing of thousands of claims of injury in order to dramatically shift the litigation dynamic in favor of plaintiffs is becoming increasingly apparent. For example, the possibility that major ongoing massive litigations, such as those involving silicone breast implants and the as yet nascent litigation involving the contraceptive Norplant, have much …

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.

The Right To Die In America: Sloganeering From Quinlan And Cruzan To Quill And Kevorkian, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

The topic of my talk is different from those you have been dealing with in this conference in one critical aspect-it's one that all of us are going to confront-we're all going to die. And death is not a subject anyone can escape because it has both professional implications-what the law should be, how we should decide disputes when they arise, and practical ones-how we should order our own lives, and what we should do to try to make our death easier if not on ourselves, at least on our loved ones.

Facilitating Choice: Judging The Physician's Role In Abortion And Suicide, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

When I was invited to give this talk I thought, "I'll just give my standard slide show on death in America." I thought I would just talk about the right to die, something I can do in my sleep, and everybody would be happy. And you probably would, since it's a pretty good speech. I am going to give it at a Pennsylvania Judges Conference in a couple of weeks, and they will like it. But it is not very challenging, either for me or for you. So, what I want to explore with you today is how judges have …

Medicine And Human Rights: Reflections On The Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Doctors’ Trial, George J. Annas, Michael A. Grodin

Faculty Scholarship

1996 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the commencement of the trial of Nazi physicians at Nuremberg, a trial that has been variously designated as the "Doctors' Trial" and the "Medical Case." In addition to documenting atrocities committed by physicians and scientists during WWII, the most significant contribution of the trial has come to be known as the "Nuremberg Code," a judicial codification of 10 prerequisites for the moral and legal use of human beings in experiments. Anniversaries provide us with an opportunity to reflect upon the past, but they also ena ble us to renew our efforts to plan for …

Homologizing Pregnancy And Motherhood: A Consideration Of Abortion, Julia E. Hanigsberg

Michigan Law Review

In this essay I reconsider abortion in order to bridge what initially seem to be two opposing frameworks: first, the conception of abortion as an issue of women's bodily integrity and liberty, and second, the acknowledgement of the existence and meaning of intrauterine life. The abortion choice is indeed deeply and necessarily tied to women's bodily integrity. I will discuss how taking away women's ability to control their decision not to become mothers can be severely damaging to their very sense of self, for this denial of decisionmaking divides women from their wombs and uses their wombs for a purpose …

Aids Phobia, Public Health Warnings, And Lawsuits: Deterring Harm Or Rewarding Ignorance?, Wendy K. Mariner

Faculty Scholarship

Courts in more than a dozen states have decided cases in which a person has claimed money damages for his or her fear of getting acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Although most courts have rejected such claims in the absence of actual exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), their reasoning has varied slightly from state to state. This article argues that negligence law should not permit people who are HIV negative to recover damages for an unfounded fear of AIDS. Public health statements intended to educate the public about preventing HIV transmission may have encouraged some fear-of-AIDS lawsuits against health …

The Duty To Control In Negligent Release Cases: King V. Durham County Mental Health Developmental Disabilities And Substance Abuse Authority, Timothy J. Turner

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Critical Condition Of The Emergency Medical Treatment And Active Labor Act: A Proposed Amendment To The Act After "In The Matter Of Baby K", Scott B. Smith

Vanderbilt Law Review

Congress enacted the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act ('EMTALA" or "the Act") in 1986 to prevent hospi- tals from "dumping" patients due to an improper economic motive. Patient dumping occurs when a hospital emergency room either refuses to admit an indigent and uninsured patient with an emergency condition or improperly transfers this patient to another hospital. Congress enacted EMTALA in response to the widespread practice of hospitals dumping indigent and uninsured patients. Yet despite the Act's explicit legislative intent to prevent patient dumping, the language of EMTALA extends protection to "any individual" who enters a hospital's emergency room. …

The Fourth Circuit's Baby K Decision: Plain Language Does Not Make Good Law, David Zell Myerberg M.D.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Solving The Kidney Shortage Crisis Through The Use Of Non-Heart-Beating Cadaveric Donors: Legal Endorsement Of Perfusion As A Standard Procedure, Marla K. Clark

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Is The Doctor Hostile--Obstructive Impairments And The Hostility Rule In Federal Black Lung Claims, Timothy F. Cogan

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Medical Malpractice Insurance In The Wake Of Liability Reform, W. Kip Viscusi, Patricia Born

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article examines the effect of the liability reforms on medical malpractice insurance over the 1984-91 period. This is the first study to use data by firm and by state for every firm writing medical malpractice insurance over that time period. The liability reforms increased insurance profitability (that is, decreased the loss ratios), where the main mechanism of influence was through decreasing losses. The quantile regression estimates imply that the greatest effects of liability reform are on the most unprofitable firms and that the effect is not uniform across the entire market. This pattern is consistent with the other principal …

The Advocate's Conflicting Obligations Vis-A.-Vis Adverse Medical Evidence In Social Security Proceedings, Robert E. Rains

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Are Absolute Bans On Assisted Suicide Constitutional--I Say No, Robert A. Sedler

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Due Process

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Equal Protection

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

A.D.A.M. -- The Computer Generated Cadaver: A New Development In Medical Malpractice And Personal Injury Litigation, 13 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 313 (1995), André M. Thapedi

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

A.D.A.M. is a CD-ROM based, interactive, anatomical program that permits the user to view and observe the anatomical aspect of the human body used in medical schools throughout the United States. A.D.A.M. and its female counterpart E.V.E., use high-resolution graphics and color animation to show views of the human body from every conceivable angle simulating various traumas to the body. Utilizing a mouse, the A.D.A.M. user can "point and click" to reveal the various parts of the human body. Potentially, attorneys can use A.D.A.M. to demonstrate injuries and surgeries to the trier of fact in a trial proceeding. The trial …

Medical Process Patents And Patient Privacy Rights, 14 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 131 (1995), Jeffrey A. Taylor

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The author analyzes the patentability of medical processes and the effect patentability has on the right to privacy essential in a physician-patient relationship. Part II of the comment provides a the legal background on the issue of the patentability of medical processes. Part III examines the impact of enforcing medical process patents and the effect disclosure of medical records has upon the privacy of the physician-patient relationship when owners of patents try to expose patent infringement. Part IV advocates that Congress should amend the Patent Act to preserve patient privacy rights when infringement is investigated. According to the author, such …

Restatement (Second) Of Torts Section 324a: An Innovative Theory Of Recovery For Patients Injured Through Use Or Misuse Of Health Care Information Services, 14 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 73 (1995), Lisa L. Dahm

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The author in this comment discusses how developments in information technology and widespread utilization of technology and software in the patient care context raise the issue of clinical liability for health care information systems vendors. The comment discusses a theory of recovery of tort damages for the negligence of health care information systems vendors under section 324A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. Section 324A provides in essence that "one who undertakes ... for consideration, to render services to another which he should recognize as necessary for the protection of a third person ... is subject to liability to the …

Mandatory Non-Anonymous Testing Of Newborns For Hiv: Should It Ever Be Allowed, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 373 (1994), Jean R. Sternlight

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

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.