Medical Jurisprudence Commons^™

Does Twenty-Five Years Make A Difference In “Unequal Treatment”?: The Persistence Of Racial Disparities In Health Care Then And Now, Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

In 1985, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Services (HHS) issued a landmark report that exposed the persistence of racial disparities in the U.S. healthcare system. Unfortunately, twenty-five years later, racial disparities in healthcare continue to persist. For example, since 1985, more African-Americans have died from coronary disease, breast cancer, and diabetes than Caucasians, even though more Caucasians suffer from these diseases than African-Americans. Notwithstanding their increased mortality rates, African Americans “have a statistically significantly lower mean number of annual ambulatory [walk-in] visits and are less likely to have seen a physician in [any given] year.” Studies …

Litigation, Integration, And Transformation: Using Medcaid To Address Racial Inequities In Health Care, Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

Instances of racial discrimination in health care continue despite the enactment of civil rights laws, such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 *329 (Title VI). Title VI prohibited racial discrimination by health care entities receiving government funding such as Medicaid payments. The federal government focused its initial efforts on hospitals. Because hospitals relied on federal funding, the federal government was able to force hospitals to integrate without much resistance from the hospital industry. However, since this accomplishment the government has relied too heavily on assurances of compliance from other health care entities, such as nursing homes, …

What Parents Don't Know: Informed Consent, Marriage, And Genital-Normalizing Surgery On Intersex Children, Samantha S. Uslan

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Character, Competence, And The Principles Of Medical Discipline, Nadia N. Sawicki

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article presents a first-of-its-kind analysis of the disciplinary functions of state medical licensing boards-the frequently overlooked administrative agencies designed to serve as the "gatekeepers" of the medical profession. It concludes that medical boards may have lost sight of their primary goal of patient protection and suggests that a renewed focus on professional licensing boards may go a long way towards addressing some of the quality of care problems plaguing the American medical system.

This Article identifies three fundamental legal principles underlying medical boards' authority to discipline physicians: the goal of public protection, substantive due process limitations based on fitness …

Lines Of Communication: Advances In Stem Cell Policy, Dena Davis, Debra Grega

Journal of Law and Health

This is a transcription of the Journal of Law and Health's Speaker Series event held on November 17, 2009 at the Joseph W. Bartunek III Moot Court Room, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. The speakers discussed stem cell policy, ethics, oversight, funding restrictions and research restrictions.

Not Of Woman Born: How Ectogenesis Will Change The Way We View Viability, Birth, And The Status Of The Unborn, Eric Steiger

Journal of Law and Health

Over seventy-five years ago, Aldous Huxley envisioned a future in which the creation of human individuals is not left to chance and sweaty biology, but is a feat of engineering individuals to established specifications. Huxley described a process by which human ova are fertilized in-vitro, then "budded" through an imaginary technique into multiple copies, and finally into identical twins in incubators, entirely absent of a mother's womb. While many of Huxley's predictions about the future have come to pass, such as helicopters, the assembly line, and indeed, in-vitro fertilization, the prospect of ectogenesis, of gestating a child completely outside of …

Screen, Stabilize, And Ship: Emtala, U.S. Hospitals, And Undocumented Immigrants (International Patient Dumping), Jennifer M. Smith

Journal Publications

Pursuant to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), patient dumping is illegal in the United States. American hospitals cannot inappropriately discharge or transfer unstable patients to other medical facilities in the United States without violating EMTALA. Yet, American hospitals are doing this very thing- international patient dumping, by inappropriately transferring or discharging (i.e. shipping) indigent undocumented immigrants in arguably unstable conditions to Third World medical facilities in the home country of the immigrant absent federal government oversight or compliance with EMTALA.

Hukum-Hukum Berkaitan Pesakit Aids Dalam Urusan Ibadat Dan Kekeluargaan., Noor Hamiza Mustapa

Student Works (2010-2019)

This dissertation discusses legal rules pertaining to AIDS patients in ‘ibadat and family matters. ‘Ibadat covers prayers, fasting and hajj. Family matters deal with marriage, fasakh (annulment of marriage), sexual intercourse, pregnancy, abortion, fosterage and hadanah (custody of children). The research based on primary and secondary sources, for instances, al-Quran, al-Sunnah, classical fiqh books, related acts and enactments, dissertations, theses, journals, seminar paperworks, magazines and newspapers. Moreover, in order to acquire primary sources which are current and latest, the author make an effort to interview specialists such as medical experts and contemporary Islamic scholars. The author utilizes various methods which …

Medical Malpractice Liability Crisis Or Patient Compensation Crisis?, Kathryn Zeiler

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article is organized as follows. Part II summarizes the common rhetoric in tort reform debates that places the blame for rising premiums on the liability system and touts tort reform as the cure-all for ailing insurance markets. It then summarizes empirical results, produced using Texas closed claims data and other data, which suggest not only that Texas tort reform advocates wrongly placed blame on the liability system, but also that noneconomic damages caps passed in 2003 have caused more harm than good. Part III describes results that suggest that the widely used tactic of pointing to jumbo jury verdicts …

Readability, Contracts Of Recurring Use, And The Problem Of Ex Post Judicial Governance Of Health Insurance Polices, John Aloysius Cogan, Jr.

Faculty Articles and Papers

While the rhetoric surrounding the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act focused on core issues such as cost, quality, and access to care, the dialog rarely acknowledged a key problem-the fact that most Americans do not understand their health insurance. Simply put, consumers do not fully grasp their health insurance coverage because the jargon found in many health insurance contracts is impenetrable to most Americans. This is disconcerting because consumer-oriented information is central to our increasingly consumer-directed health care system. Consumers are expected to make cost-effective choices among the array of health insurance plans that may be …

The Federal Arbitration Act After Alafabco: A Case Analysis, Benjamin D. Tievsky

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

In late 2009, a divided Supreme Court of Washington held in Satomi Owners Ass'n v. Satomi, L.L.C. that the arbitration provision in a warranty addendum to a sales contract between a condominium developer and an owners' association was enforceable. Specifically, the court held that the provision was within the reach of the Federal Arbitration Act, and that a Washington state statute preserving the parties' right to litigate with regard to the warranty addendum was therefore preempted. This Note will explore the potential importance of this decision for defining the contours of the applicability of the Federal Arbitration Act (at least …

Paying Women For Their Eggs For Use In Stem Cell Research, Pamela Foohey

Scholarly Works

On June 11, 2009, the Empire State Stem Cell Board (“Board”), which administers the $600 million in New York State funds allotted to stem cell research, voted to allocate a portion of those funds to compensate women up to $10,000 for “donating” their eggs for use in stem cell research. The Board's decision makes New York the first state to affirmatively allow state funds to be used to compensate women for providing their eggs for use in stem cell research beyond mere reimbursement of associated medical and other expenses, and, similarly, distinguishes it from most international countries, which either prohibit …

Access To Prescription Drugs: A Normative Economic Approach To Pharmacist Conscience Clause Legislation, Joanna K. Sax

Faculty Scholarship

The goals of this Article are two-fold: (1) to explain that pharmacist conscience clause legislation may be expanded to areas concerning controversial biomedical research; and (2) to demonstrate that welfare economics can be applied to analyze pharmacist conscience clause legislation. Regarding the first goal, the broad language of existing and proposed conscience clause legislation creates an umbrella that allows a pharmacist to escape liability for refusing to fill a prescription for almost any type of medication. With respect to the second goal, this Article applies welfare economics to demonstrate that pharmacist conscience clauses are a part of tort law and …

The Multiple Common Law Roots Of Charitable Immunity: An Essay In Honor Of Richard Epstein's Contributions To Tort Law, Jill R. Horwitz

Articles

Professor Epstein has long promoted replacing tort-based malpractice law with a new regime based on contracts. In Mortal Peril, he grounded his normative arguments in favor of such a shift in the positive, doctrinal history of charitable immunity law. In this essay, in three parts, I critique Professor Epstein’s suggestion that a faulty set of interpretations in charitable immunity law led to our current reliance on tort for malpractice claims. First, I offer an alternative interpretation to Professor Epstein’s claim that one group of 19th and early 20th century cases demonstrates a misguided effort to protect donor wishes. Rather, I …

Conditional Spending And Compulsory Maternity, Nicole Huberfeld

Faculty Scholarship

More than 45 million Americans are uninsured, and even more are seeking government assistance accessing healthcare, rendering the conditions placed on government spending a timely and significant issue. Federal funding often demands a sacrifice of the recipient, meaning that Congress can condition the receipt of federal funds on certain statutory prerequisites. Given the demand to expand the nation's major public healthcare programs, it is important to reconsider the Supreme Court's Spending Clause jurisprudence. The Court's major decisions regarding conditional spending have facilitated a disconnect that analytically separates the individual from the conditional spending program, a divide that has allowed Congress …

"Cover My Pills": Contraceptive Equity And Religious Liberty In Catholic Charities V. Dinallo, Ayelet S. Lebovicz

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note  examines the tension between the New York Womens Health and Wellness Act's (WHWA) goal of promoting women's health through contraceptive access and its burden on the First Amendment rights of religious employers. It argues that while the WHWA advances significant public health interests, its contraceptive mandate imposes substantial burdens on religious freedom and free speech, necessitating strict scrutiny. The analysis critiques the New York Court of Appeals' decision for failing to fully consider the plaintiffs' hybrid-rights claims under Supreme Court precedent, highlighting the need for lawmakers to balance competing interests while adhering to constitutional protections.

In The Manner Prescribed By The State: Potential Challenges To State-Enforced Hospital Limitations On Childbirth Options, Krista Stone-Manista

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that hospital bans on vaginal births after cesarean (VBAC) infringe upon women's legal and constitutional rights, violating principles of autonomy and equality. These bans are not only medically unnecessary but also undermine international human rights standards that protect women's decisional autonomy in healthcare. The analysis posits that such bans discriminate against women and set a dangerous precedent for state and medical control over women's bodies during pregnancy.

The Politics Of Nature: Climate Change, Environmental Law, And Democracy, Jedediah S. Purdy

Faculty Scholarship

Legal scholars’ discussions of climate change assume that the issue is one mainly of engineering incentives, and that “environmental values” are too weak, vague, or both to spur political action to address the emerging crisis. This Article gives reason to believe otherwise. The major natural resource and environmental statutes, from the acts creating national forests and parks to the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, have emerged from precisely the activity that discussions of climate change neglect: democratic argument over the value of the natural world and its role in competing ideas of citizenship, national purpose, and the role and …

Mediating Medical Malpractice Lawsuits: The Need For Plaintiff And Physician Participation, Chris Stern Hyman, Carol B. Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

At this moment in history, tort reform and new approaches to resolving medical malpractice claims are part of the national debate about how to improve health care. Federal funding is available for pilot projects to test new approaches to medical malpractice litigation. There is increased pressure from health care regulators to disclose adverse events and communicate better with patients and their families. These all present opportunities to increase the use of mediation, particularly to address medical malpractice lawsuits and to improve patient safety.

For the past seven years, we have been studying ways in which mediation and mediation skills can …