Health Law and Policy Commons^™

The Pharma Perspective: The Double-Edged Sword Of Direct-To-Consumer Advertising, Ela H. Yalcin

Health Law Outlook

No abstract provided.

Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing: Maintenance Of Individual Privacy, Jessica L. Missel

Health Law Outlook

No abstract provided.

Redefining Lgbtq And Abortion Rights In Latin America: A Transnational Toolkit, Alyssa Julian

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Throughout Latin America, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer (LGBTQ) and abortion rights movements have progressed at divergent strengths and speeds, with significant variation among countries. The region is home to some of the most restrictive and discriminatory laws when it comes to these contentious issues. This Note explores some of the reasons behind the variation in LGBTQ and abortion rights throughout the region.

This Note traces the economic and political history of Latin America to illustrate the climate in which these social movements are operating. Further, this Note offers a brief snapshot of recent global developments in LGBTQ …

Under Kemp’S Eye: Analyzing The Constitutionality Of The Heartbeat Restriction In Georgia’S Life Act And Its Potential Impact On Abortion Law, Brittney A. Sizemore

Mercer Law Review

The current state of women’s right to bodily autonomy in the United States has eerily begun to resemble that of the dystopian society depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale. While abortion rates have steadily declined over the last decade, the attempts by state legislatures to restrict or completely take away women’s right to abortion have exponentially increased. In the first six months of 2019 alone, five states passed laws placing restrictions on abortion. These restrictions range from limiting the time frame in which a woman may obtain an abortion to when a fetal heartbeat has been detected—normally around six weeks—to a …

Competency To Decide For Another, Elyn R. Saks

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Our topic is competency of a Substitute Decisionmaker (SubDM) to make a decision about medical treatment for another who is incompetent himself (the “ward”). While there is Competency to Decide for Another considerable literature on competency to decide for oneself, there is very little on competency to decide for another. Some studies look at a range of things that a SubDM needs to do —for example, seek information on what the ward has said—but there is none on how well a person must understand the relevant issues to be a competent SubDM.

The Paradoxes Of Defensive Medicine, Michael J. Saks, Stephan Landsman

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

For decades, “defensive medicine” has been the leading argument driving reforms of medical malpractice laws throughout the United States. Defensive medicine is the presumed practice of administering excessive tests and treatments as a stratagem for reducing healthcare providers’ risk of malpractice liability, despite the absence of any expected benefit for the patient. The practice is widely believed to exist throughout American healthcare as a response to fears of malpractice litigation, and thought to be enormously wasteful of healthcare dollars. In consequence, it has become a justification for law reforms insulating the healthcare industry from tort liability. These claims are promoted …

The Promise And Failures Of Children's Medicaid And The Role Of Medical-Legal Partnerships As Monitors And Advocates, L. Kate Mitchell

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

For decades we have known that access to early and preventive diagnosis and treatment can dramatically alter the course of a child’s life. Because of this knowledge, immediately after Congress enacted Medicaid, it created the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment, or EPSDT, program. EPSDT requires broad, holistic, and preventive care to correct or ameliorate health defects identified in Medicaid-eligible children. This coverage currently extends to 2 out of 5 children in the United States, and 47 percent of children with special health care needs. Because of the broad parameters of coverage mandated by EPSDT, Medicaid-eligible children should receive …

The Off-Label Loophole In The Psychopharmacologic Setting: Prescription Of Antipsychotic Drugs In The Nonpsychotic Patient Population, Lisa E. Smilan

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

U.S. physicians have wide discretion in treating patients with off-label medications. Many consider off-label prescription essential in our country’s health care system, and it is wholly supported by FDA and federal courts. Assumptions about physicians’ expertise, judgments, and commitments to beneficence and nonmaleficence undergird laissez-faire policies that allow and support physicians’ novel and innovate uses of FDA-approved drugs for purposes and populations not studied in original, strictly regulated clinical trials. Though sometimes beneficial, off-label prescribing, which flourishes in privatepractice psychiatry, often harms scores of psychiatric patients. Frequently, potential harms are insufficiently disclosed to patients. In the public health sector, officials …

Why The United States Is Failing New Mothers And How It Can Counteract Its Rapidly Climbing Maternal Mortality Rate, Khouloude Abboud

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.

The Survival Of Critical Infrastructure: How Do We Stop Ransomware Attacks On Hospitals?, Helena Roland

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Our nation’s infrastructure is under an emerging new threat: ransomware attacks. These attacks can cause anything from individual laptops, to entire cities to shut down for a period of time until the victim pays a ransom to the attacker. Unfortunately, these attacks are on the rise and the attackers have a new target: hospitals. Ransomware attacks on hospitals can temporarily shut down operating room technology and limit physician access to patient files, ultimately threatening the safety of hospital patients and the surrounding community. This paper examines how the threat of ransomware attacks on hospitals is on the rise and what …

Assumed Compliance, Stacey A. Tovino

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

The Full Swede: Revising Rhode Island’S Prostitution Law To Decriminalize The Selling Of Sex While Still Criminalizing The Buying Of Sex, Amanda Larocca

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Consumer Protections In The Context Of Holistic Healthcare, Rachel Pauerstein

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Re Zhu: Implied Consent To Posthumous Sperm Retrieval, Mary Kathryn Sapp

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Crispr And The Future Of Fertility Innovation, June R. Carbone

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Mosaic Of Coronavirus Vaccine Development: Systemic Failures In Vaccine Innovation, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

Scientists are racing to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus. While some vaccine candidates may enter the market in record time, the current vaccine innovation ecosystem exposes governance lacunas at both the international and domestic levels.

Structural Discrimination In Covid-19 Workplace Protections, Ruqaiijah Yearby, Seema Mohapatra

All Faculty Scholarship

Workers, who are being asked to risk their health by working outside their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, need adequate hazard compensation, safe workplace conditions, and personal protective equipment (PPE). Sadly, this is not happening for many essential workers, such as those working in home health care and in the meat processing industry. These workers are not only being unnecessarily exposed to the virus, but they are also not receiving paid sick leave, unemployment benefits, and affordable health care and childcare. The lack of these protections is due to structural discrimination and has disproportionately disadvantaged women of color and low-wage …

The Problem With Relying On Profit-Driven Models To Produce Pandemic Drugs, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

The longstanding problems of relying on a market response to a pandemic are becoming readily apparent in the United States, which has quickly become the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. The problems are particularly pronounced in pharmaceutical markets, where we are pinning our hopes for both cures and vaccines. In previous work we have shown how characteristics of healthcare markets in the United States create a divergence between the private incentives of for-profit companies and public health needs, leading to sub-optimal health outcomes in what is a uniquely market-driven healthcare system. In this Essay, written as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, …

The Reemergence Of Vaccine Nationalism, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

This short essay explores the reemergence of vaccine nationalism during the COVID-19 pandemic. The essay traces the pre-COVID origins of vaccine nationalism and explains how it can have detrimental effects on equitable access to newly developed vaccines.

PortugalʼS Response To Covid-19, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay for the Regulatory Review's special series on Comparing Nations’ Responses to COVID-19 examines the early response to the pandemic in Portugal. The essay focuses on measures adopted in connection with the declarations of state of emergency and state of calamity, as well as the treatment of migrant populations throughout the pandemic.