Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons^™

Might Houses Of Worship Enable Currently Uninsured, Economically Disadvantaged Individuals To Obtain Affordable Health Care Insurance?, Nina J. Crimm

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

No abstract provided.

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter, Fall 2015

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Compassionate Use Of Experimental Therapies: Who Should Decide?, Patricia J. Zettler

Faculty Publications By Year

In addition to being an example of unsubstantiated hype about regenerative medicine, the controversy around the Italy-based Stamina Foundation's unproven stem cell therapy represents another chapter in a continuing debate about how to balance patients' requests for early access to experimental medicines with requirements for demonstrating safety and effectiveness. Compassionate use of the Stamina therapy arguably should not have been permitted under Italy's laws, but public pressure was intense and judges ultimately granted access. One lesson from these events is that expert regulatory agencies may be the institutions most competent to make compassionate use decisions and that policies should include …

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter, Summer 2015

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Promoting Completion Of Advance Directives In A Hispanic Religious Congregation: An Evidence-Based Practice Project, Luis Daniel San Miguel, Mary Jo Clark

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Manuscripts

Background: Hispanics utilize more aggressive medical treatment at the end of life and are less likely to receive end-of-life care consistent with their wishes than nonHispanic Whites. Hispanics are less likely than nonHispanic Whites to have an advance directive (AD). Increasing AD completion among Hispanics can promote end-of-life care consistent with their wishes, diminish healthcare disparities, and eliminate unnecessary healthcare spending. Objectives: To promote completion of advance directives by increasing knowledge, positive attitudes, and comfort with advance care planning (ACP) among Hispanics through culturally sensitive interventions. Intervention: The project was conducted in Spanish and implemented among a …

Law, Ethics, And Public Health In The Vaccination Debates: Politics Of The Measles Outbreak, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The measles outbreak of early 2015 is symptomatic of a larger societal problem–the growing number of parents who decide against vaccinating their children. This failure is causing the resurgence of childhood diseases once eliminated from the United States.

This article explores the legal and ethical landscape of vaccine exemptions. While all states require childhood vaccinations, they differ significantly in the types of religious and/or philosophical exemptions permitted, the rigor of the application process, and available review mechanisms. States with relaxed exemption policies disproportionately experience more outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease.

Vaccine exemptions are an illustration of the “tragedy of the commons,” …

Just Compensation: A No-Fault Proposal For Research-Related Injuries, Leslie Meltzer Henry, Megan E. Larkin, Elizabeth R. Pike

Faculty Scholarship

Biomedical research, no matter how well designed and ethically conducted, carries uncertainties and exposes participants to risk of injury. Research injuries can range from the relatively minor to those that result in hospitalization, permanent disability, or even death. Participants might also suffer a range of economic harms related to their injuries. Unlike the vast majority of developed countries, which have implemented no-fault compensation systems, the United States continues to rely on the tort system to compensate injured research participants—an approach that is no longer morally defensible. Despite decades of US advisory panels advocating for no-fault compensation, little progress has been …

Respect And Dignity: A Conceptual Model For Patients In The Intensive Care Unit, Leslie Meltzer Henry, Cynda Rushton, Mary Catherine Beach, Ruth Faden

Faculty Scholarship

Although the concept of dignity is commonly invoked in clinical care, there is not widespread agreement—in either the academic literature or in everyday clinical conversations—about what dignity means. Without a framework for understanding dignity, it is difficult to determine what threatens patients’ dignity and, conversely, how to honor commitments to protect and promote it. This article aims to change that by offering the first conceptual model of dignity for patients in the intensive care unit. The conceptual model we present is based on the notion that there are three sources of patients’ dignity—their shared humanity, personal narratives, and autonomy—each of …

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter, Winter 2015

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Giving Thanks: The Ethics Of Grateful Patient Fundraising, Stacey A. Tovino

Faculty Articles

Grateful patient fundraising, defined as the solicitation of philanthropic donations by health care providers from current and former patients, raises a number of legal and ethical issues. Elsewhere, I detailed the confidentiality issues raised by the use and disclosure of patient identifiable information by hospital development officers, major gifts officers, institutionally-related foundations, and commercial fundraisers, and proposed corrections to federal health information confidentiality regulations to better balance the competing aims of health care philanthropy and health information confidentiality. In this Article, I analyze several outstanding issues raised by physician involvement in grateful patient fundraising. That is, physicians who solicit philanthropic …

Shifting Our Focus From Retribution To Social Justice: An Alternative Vision For The Treatment Of Pregnant Women Who Harm Their Fetuses, April L. Cherry

Journal of Law and Health

The ways in which society responds to pregnant women whose behavior purportedly harms their fetuses can be explored from a variety of legal vantage points. This article argues that the criminal law model currently used is ineffective. The assignment of criminal liability to pregnant women is often rooted in fetal personhood and maternal deviance discourse. Criminal law solutions fail because they fail to take into account the fact that maternal behavior is often the result of a myriad of the social and economic conditions over which pregnant women have little or no control. The criminal law model, therefore, simply punishes …

From Bibles To Biomarkers: The Future Of The Dsm And Forensic Psychiatric Diagnosis, Teneille R. Brown

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Given its importance to the law, it is regrettable that judges and lawyers do not fully understand how the DSM is constructed, and the bedrock of values on which it rests. As evidence of this, lawyers and judges often refer to the DSM as the “psychiatric bible.” This language is both fascinating and perplexing. This Article will attempt to correct the notion that the DSM is a legal “psychiatric bible” by explaining how it is created and used by the medical field. It will also provide a few reasons why the law may have come to view it as a …

Markets, Morals, And Limits In The Exchange Of Human Eggs, Kimberly D. Krawiec

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Injustice Of Inclusion And Fair Opportunity: Exploiting Children In Medical Research For The Benefit Of An Unworthy Society, Ruqaiijah Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

The history of pediatric medical research has been characterized as a history of child abuse. Usually, the debate regarding the use of children in medical research has centered on questions of Autonomy (informed consent) and Beneficence (the best interest of the child based on a benefit risk analysis). The debate has rarely focused on the question of which children should participate in medical research by discussing the legal principle of Justice (prohibits use of vulnerable populations for medical research who are already overly burdened for medical research unrelated to health issues affecting them and requires that populations who participate in …

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter, Fall 2014

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter

No abstract provided.

When Harvard Said No To Eugenics: The J. Ewing Mears Bequest, 1927, Paul A. Lombardo

Faculty Publications By Year

James Ewing Mears (1838-1919) was a founding member of the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery. His 1910 book, The Problem of Race Betterment, laid the groundwork for later authors to explore the uses of surgical sterilization as a eugenic measure. Mears left $60,000 in his will to Harvard University to support the teaching of eugenics. Although numerous eugenic activists were on the Harvard faculty, and who of its Presidents were also associated with the eugenics movement, Harvard refused the Mears gift. The bequest was eventually awarded to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. This article explains why Harvard turned its back …

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter, Spring 2014

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Legal And Ethical Responsibilities Following Brain Death: The Mcmath And Muñoz Cases, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

What are the legal and ethical implications of continuing to treat a brain dead patient? And may a hospital refuse to provide such treatment? These ethical and legal problems are raised in two recent cases. In the first Marlise Muñoz, a pregnant woman declared brain dead, was kept on life support against her family’s wishes due to the treating hospital’s interpretation of a Texas fetal protection law. In the other a hospital refused to treat Jahi McMath, a brain dead girl, despite her family's entreaties. The cases, at first, appear similar because in each case the hospital was refusing to …

Setting The Stage: Enhancing Understanding Of Bioethical Challenges With Theatre, Karen H. Rothenberg

Faculty Scholarship

Theatre provides a dynamic platform to reflect upon the ethical, legal, and social implications of medical innovations and the powerful impact on personal and professional relationships. This article explores the last four to five decades of theatre, which coincide with the evolution of the formal discipline of bioethics and the field of medical humanities, to aid in the understanding of the bioethical challenges we face today and to place them in an historical and societal context. Four plays are discussed that reflect the ethical and legal context of their eras and reveal significant ethical challenges for us to consider.

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter, Winter 2014

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Nudging The Fda, W. Nicholson Price Ii, I. Glenn Cohen

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "The FDA’s regulation of drugs is frequently the subject of policy debate, with arguments falling into two camps. On the one hand, a libertarian view of patients and the health care system holds high the value of consumer choice. Patients should get all the information and the drugs they want; the FDA should do what it can to enforce some basic standards but should otherwise get out of the way. On the other hand, a paternalist view values the FDA’s role as an expert agency standing between patients and a set of potentially dangerous drugs and potentially unscrupulous or …

Context Matters: Disability, The End Of Life, And Why The Conversation Is Still So Difficult, Alicia Ouellette

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dispute Resolution Mechanisms For Intractable Medical Futility Disputes, Thaddeus Mason Pope

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Schiavo To Death Panels: How Media Coverage Of End-Of-Life Issues Affects Public Opinion, Sherrie Dulworth

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Advance Directives, Dementia, And Eligibility For Physician-Assisted Death, Paul T. Menzel

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Right-To-Die Cases: A New York Historical Perspective, Sol Wachtler

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Health Justice Denied Or Delayed At The End Of Life: A Crisis Needing Remedial Action, David C. Leven

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Give Me Liberty At My Death: Expanding End-Of-Life Choice In Massachusetts, Kathryn L. Tucker

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

A New Life For Wrongful Living, Nadia N. Sawicki

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Limits Of Autonomy: Force-Feedings In Catholic Hospitals And In Prisons, Ann Neumann

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.