Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons^™

Respect For The Bioethical Dilemmas - The Case Of Physician-Assisted Suicide, Sixty-Fifth Cleveland-Marshall Fund Lecture, John A. Robertson

Cleveland State Law Review

In this lecture I begin an exploration of the role that respect for human life plays in contemporary bioethics. Although many bioethical dilemmas could be chosen to illustrate this role, I will focus on the case of physician-assisted suicide. This lecture emphasizes the role that respect for human life plays in arbitrating bioethical disputes that involve physician-assisted suicide. I hope to develop some generalizations about how respect for life and autonomy, beneficence and other values interact and thus constitute or define what respect for life means for us. Part I discusses assisted suicide and the ban against actively killing. Part …

One Way To Be Born? Legislative Inaction And The Posthumous Child, Karin M. Mika

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article argues that the posthumous child and the rights and responsibilities relating to such a child are directly related to the fundamental right to procreate. It argues that legislation must necessarily incorporate that right in sorting out issues related to the posthumous child and deviate from the standard principles of contract laws which have been applied in the past. This article examines the history, case law, federal decisions, and current legislation pertaining to artificial insemination. It argues that such legislation is inadequate and that legislatures must act promptly to address the realities of the posthumous child.

A Feminist Understanding Of Sex-Selective Abortion: Solely A Matter Of Choice, April L. Cherry

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This essay consists of five sections. The first section describes the problem of sex-selective abortion, including an analysis of sociological data regarding adult preference for male children and its current effects. Section Two discusses various philosophical paradigms and analyses of sex-selective abortion with the goal of developing a coherent philosophical base from which to argue for a policy regarding sex-selective abortion which furthers the goals of gender equality. Section Three addresses the constitutionality of sex-selective abortion prohibitions in light of the Supreme Court's pronouncement in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. Section Four outlines the liberal feminist response to …

Embryos Created For Research Purposes, Dena S. Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The creation of embryos for research use has drawn a great deal of criticism. It is difficult to defend an ethical distinction between what one can do to "spare" embryos and what one can do to "research" embryos. The strongest ground on which to argue against the creation of embryos for research is a symbolic one, having to do with respect for human life. Ronald Dworkin's work in Life's Dominion on the symbolic meaning of the abortion debate throws a helpful light on this dispute. By understanding the basic question to be, Does the creation of research embryos weaken or …

The Biological Alteration Cases, Sheldon Gelman

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

State interventions such as drugging dangerous prisoners to “alter the chemical balance in the brain,” sterilizing women involuntarily, or, more modestly, compelling vaccination in order to modify someone's immune system, employ a remarkable and problematic technique. The government biologically alters an individual to suit official policy, tailoring the person's very physical constitution to conform with some public objective. Even when the objective is worthy, such as preventing disease, the technique remains troubling. For in the process of biological alteration, government transforms individuals into instruments of state policy. Focusing on the handful of Supreme Court decisions involving the technique, this Article …

Method In Jewish Bioethics: An Overview, Dena S. Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This essay introduces the reader to the processes by which Jewish ethical-legal reasoning brings old insights to bear on new problems generated by advances in science and medicine. There are at least four reasons why Jewish legal thinking in this area is important to the wider community of Western legal scholars. First, because the law often strives to consider different religious beliefs, it is important to understand these beliefs, the history of these beliefs, and how they function within their religious community.

Second, Jewish legal thinking is important because representatives of religious traditions frequently serve on policy and law-making bodies. …

Slim Just Left Town: Decision-Making On An Intensive Care Unit, Dena S. Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This essay will analyze the process of making health care decisions when patients' chances are slim. I look at recent legal tools that purport to enhance patients' control over their own care, and conclude that they are rarely efficacious. Because all medical decisions are based on prognosis, and because prognosis is ineluctably subjective, the doctor retains almost total control of the decisionmaking process.