Therapeutic jurisprudence and outpatient commitment law: Kendra's Law and case study.

PubMed

Perlin, Michael L

2003-01-01

This article considers the implications of assisted outpatient commitment laws (OPC), with specific focus on New York's "Kendra's Law" through the lens of therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ). In this article, the author offers perspectives on the relationship between involuntary civil commitment, outpatient commitment, and the concept of the "least restrictive alternative"; considers pertinent empirical research, and looks at OPC's controversial relationship to forced drugging. Here, the civil libertarian critique is briefly considered, as well as the MacArthur Research Network research. Finally, the author looks closely at Kendra's Law, providing a brief overview of the law itself, and identifying some "pressure points" and pivotal issues, and considers the TJ implications of Kendra's Law, to determine how it "fits" into the public's "take" on all of mental disability law.

Implications for therapeutic judging (TJ) of a psychoanalytical approach to the judicial role - Reflections on Robert Burt's contribution.

PubMed

Sourdin, Tania; Cornes, Richard

Robert Burt in, "The Yale School of Law and Psychoanalysis, from 1963 Onward", in this issue, explains and laments a decline in influence of psychoanalytic ideas in legal thinking. He notes "the fundamental similarity that both litigation and psychotherapy involve recollections of past events", buttressing his argument with eight parallels between the two. In this article we take up Burt's theme, first noting the relationship between therapeutic jurisprudence and psychoanalytic concepts before presenting an outline for a psychoanalytical understanding of the judicial role. We then consider the litigation process from the linked perspectives of therapeutic jurisprudence and psychoanalysis before closing with a reflection on the eight parallels elaborated by Burt. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Philosophical Underpinnings of Public School Funding Jurisprudence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hackney, James R., Jr.

1993-01-01

Uses the theories of John Rawls (democratic/egalitarian) and Robert Nozick (libertarian) as prisms through which to analyze judicial opinions underlying court decisions regarding public education financing. (302 footnotes) (MLF)

[Is there still a future for the French "Perruche" jurisprudence?].

PubMed

Manaouil, C; Jardé, O

2012-02-01

Since March 1, 2010, French citizens have a new procedure for defending their rights: the Priority preliminary ruling on the issue of constitutionality (QPC). During a trial, any citizen may request that the Constitutional Council be seized if he/she considers that a provision of a law applicable is inconsistent with the Constitution. One of the first QPCs was released regarding the Perruche antijurisprudence provision. The decision of the Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) on November 17, 2000 had granted the child Nicolas Perruche the right to financial compensation for the material costs related to his physical disability as a result of congenital rubella. In response, Article 1 of the law of March 4, 2002 was passed in order to prohibit the compensation of a child "solely because of his/her birth". Since this law was enacted, only the moral injury of the parents can be indemnified in a case like that of Nicolas Perruche. Over time, the application of this article of the law of March 4, 2002 has become the subject of a heated debate. In the QPC decision of June 11, 2010, the Constitutional Council found the "Perruche antijurisprudence" provision to be consistent with the Constitution, except for the transitional provisions. Thus, it is assumed that the "Perruche antijurisprudence" provision applies to all children born after the entry into force of the law, i.e., as of March 7, 2002. In addition, the Perruche jurisprudence prevails for all claims filed before March 7, 2002. The issue of the cases for which legal action was taken after March 7, 2002 for a child born before March 7, 2002 remains debated. The current debate is whether the implementation of the law of March 4, 2002 should be extended or not to instances subsequent to March 7, 2002 for births prior to that date. In the present state of jurisprudence, the Court of Appeals answers negatively and applies the Perruche jurisprudence to all children born before March 7, 2002, regardless of the date by which the claims were filed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Dealing with mentally ill domestic violence perpetrators: A therapeutic jurisprudence judicial model.

PubMed

Winick, Bruce J; Wiener, Richard; Castro, Anthony; Emmert, Aryn; Georges, Leah S

2010-01-01

People suffering from mental illness are increasingly referred to the domestic violence court. Yet the typical diversion programs available, including batterer's intervention programs, are inappropriate for those with serious mental illness. As a result, the Miami-Dade Domestic Violence Court has developed a new approach for dealing with this population that applies mental health court techniques in domestic violence court. This article will describe and discuss this pioneering model. It also will situate this model within the context of other problem-solving courts and discuss how the court uses principles and approaches of therapeutic jurisprudence. The paper presents some preliminary data that describe the social and legal characteristics of 20 defendants in the Domestic Violence Mental Health Court followed over a two year period between 2005 and 2007. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Out of the institution, into the classroom: Legal challenges to the use of restraint and seclusion in school settings in the United States.

PubMed

Nelson, Lycette

The issue of restraint and seclusion of children with mental and developmental disabilities in schools has gained greater attention in the United States in recent years as more children with disabilities are attending mainstream schools. This article looks at how cases brought on behalf of children who have been subjected to such treatment fit or fail to fit within a well-developed jurisprudence that provides constitutional protections for the rights of people with mental disabilities to be free from discrimination and from cruel and unusual punishment. It examines this jurisprudence in light of Article 16's emphasis on the provision of age- and gender-appropriate services to protect people with disabilities from exploitation, violence, and abuse. 1 . Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Professional responsibility in elder law: a synthesis of preventive law and therapeutic jurisprudence.

PubMed

Stolle, D P

1996-01-01

This article focuses on the professional responsibilities that a lawyer owes to older clients. Specifically, this article proposes that when working with older clients, lawyers have a responsibility to ensure that their clients have the capacity to manage their own affairs and to ensure their clients' legal, financial, and personal interests are protected in case of sudden future incapacity. Furthermore, a lawyer working with older clients has a responsibility to remain cognizant of the realities of ageing without giving in to the falsities of senior citizen stereotypes. Through an integration of Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Preventive Law, a proactive, client-centered, four-stage framework for advancing therapeutic goals through preventive lawyering is developed. The framework is then applied to a model lawyer/client interaction typical of elder practice. The advantages and limitations of the four-stage framework are discussed.

Beyond the corporeal: Extending propertisation of body parts to derivative information.

PubMed

Bonython, Wendy; Arnold, Bruce Baer

2016-03-01

Jurisprudential consideration of property in the human body has typically conceptualised it as tangible, of finite lifespan, with limited end uses. This article offers an alternative conceptualisation: the body as information--intangible, infinite, and perpetual. Global markets in health "big data"--including population genomic data--trade this information. Emerging jurisprudence on source rights in this information are derived from jurisprudence based on the traditional, tangible, finite conceptualisation of the body--itself controversial--criticised in part for disregarding property rights vesting in the self, while recognising them in strangers. As such, it provides an uncertain foundation for extension to govern rights over derivatives, enabling disregard of legitimate concerns about health, commercialisation and genetic privacy, concerns compounded by the intergenerational nature of genetic information. A more nuanced approach, recognising that donors and strangers alike hold only weak custodial rights over access, use, and dissemination of tissues and derivative information, is required.

An examination of stakeholder attitudes and understanding of therapeutic jurisprudence in a mental health court.

PubMed

Lim, Loraine; Day, Andrew

2016-01-01

Mental health courts represent a key component of contemporary responses to mental illness and disability in the criminal justice system, and yet there is uncertainty about how these courts should balance their punishment and treatment roles. This paper reports an analysis of interviews with court professionals which considers their understanding of the rationale underpinning an Australian mental health court, its effectiveness in achieving its criminal justice and clinical goals, and of broader notions of therapeutic jurisprudence. This reveals considerable support for diversionary mental health court programs of this type and professional confidence that this type of program is effective. However, the analysis also highlights conflict in the practice frameworks of the different professional groups who regularly contribute to the operations of the court. Suggestions to enhance service delivery are offered. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

International jurisprudence on trade and environmental health: one step forward, two steps back?

PubMed

Timmermans, Karin

2008-01-01

Since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), there has been considerable debate regarding the impact of its rules on public health. By contrast, the role of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism has received little attention, even though the bodies responsible for settling disputes are the ultimate interpreters of WTO rules and agreements. To date, three WTO disputes that relate to occupational and/or environmental health have been fully litigated. A review of the decisions and reasoning in these cases indicates that WTO jurisprudence is evolving, as Panels and the Appellate Body try--with varying degrees of success--to balance countries' rights and obligations under international trade agreements with their right to protect occupational and environmental health. Disputes between nations can have an impact beyond the parties concerned, and raise questions about the relationship between trade agreements and other international agreements, especially multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).

Judicial virtues and decision-making in the VCAT Guardianship List.

PubMed

Polkinghorn, Richard

2014-06-01

The contemporary legal theory of virtue jurisprudence provides great insight into the proper practice of Australian tribunal members and the desired operation of tribunals. Virtue jurisprudence identifies the attributes of "good" tribunal members and provides guidance on how legal disputes should be decided. This article focuses on the fundamental virtues relevant to tribunal practice in the Guardianship List of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The special features of this tribunal jurisdiction, particularly the disadvantaged nature of its primary client group, require tribunal members to undertake a fact-finding, inquisitorial role, as well as a support and advisory role. Decision-makers must also become conversant with expert evidence and the process of testing expert evidence; they cannot simply defer to the expert on issues of decision-making capacity. This analysis considers the fundamental breaches of human rights that occur when tribunal members fail to execute this multilevel task properly.

A Graduate Professional Program in Translation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waldinger, Renee

1987-01-01

The City University of New York Graduate School's professional program in translation combines high-level, specialized language learning in French, German, and Spanish with related graduate work in such disciplines as international affairs, finance, banking, jurisprudence, literature, and computer science. (CB)

Report to Congress on the "Review of Federal and State Laws Regarding Vehicle Towing".

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2007-05-11

This report summarizes current federal and state law and jurisprudence regarding nonconsensual motor vehicle towing, and also provides an overview of information obtained from major stakeholder groups regarding this topic. Major issues related to non...

Fuller on Legal Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Summers, Robert S.

1984-01-01

The perspectives of Lon L. Fuller on legal education in the 1940s and 1950s is outlined, including the responsibilities and tasks of the lawyer, curricular deficiencies, pedagogical deficiencies, the need for and objectives of a course in jurisprudence, research needs, and obstacles to good legal education. (MSE)

Judging Interpretations: But Is It Rigorous? Trustworthiness and Authenticity in Naturalistic Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwandt, Thomas A.; Lincoln, Yvonna S.; Guba, Egon G.

2007-01-01

Among the most knotty problems faced by investigators committed to interpretive practices in disciplines and fields such as sociocultural anthropology, jurisprudence, literary criticism, historiography, feminist studies, public administration, policy analysis, planning, educational research, and evaluation are deciding whether an interpretation is…

Wailing Babies in Her Wake

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodman, Gail S.

2005-01-01

The scientific study of child witnesses has influenced both developmental science and jurisprudence concerning children. Focusing on the author's own studies, 4 categories of research are briefly reviewed: (a) children's eyewitness memory and suggestibility; (b) memory for traumatic events in childhood; (c) disclosure of child sexual abuse; and…

Classics in psychiatry and the law: Francis Wharton on involuntary confessions.

PubMed

Weiss, Kenneth J

2012-01-01

Philadelphia attorney Francis Wharton was a key intellectual figure in linking the sciences of medicine and law. In 1860, he published a monograph on involuntary confessions, which represented the closing chapter of Wharton and Stillé's Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence. He had already published A Monograph on Mental Unsoundness in 1855, the first book of the Treatise in its first edition. Wharton was convinced that many criminals had an inner compulsion to confess or to be caught, explained as divine jurisprudence. His remarks on confessions include a typology spanning psychodynamics to police tactics, using contemporaneous, historical, and literary examples. This remarkable document provides insight into the dynamics of unintended and involuntary confessions and is compatible, in part, with current scholarship. The author contrasts Wharton's schema with those of his English predecessor Jeremy Bentham, the psychoanalyst Theodore Reik, and others, and concludes that it represents an important transition toward a psychological approach to the criminology of confessions.

Examining the links between therapeutic jurisprudence and mental health court completion.

PubMed

Redlich, Allison D; Han, Woojae

2014-04-01

Research demonstrates that mental health courts (MHCs) lead to improved outcomes compared to traditional criminal court processes. An underlying premise of MHCs is therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ). However, no research, to our knowledge, has examined whether MHC outcomes are predicted by TJ principles as theorized. In the present study, we examined whether principles measured at the onset of MHC enrollment (knowledge, perceived voluntariness, and procedural justice) predicted MHC completion (graduation). Using structural equation modeling with MHC participants from four courts, a significant, direct relationship between TJ and MHC completion was found, such that higher levels of TJ were associated with higher rates of success. Although this direct effect became nonsignificant when mediator variables were included, a significant indirect path remained, such that increased levels of initial perceived voluntariness and procedural justice, and MHC knowledge, led to decreased rates of new arrests, prison, MHC bench warrants, and increased court compliance, which, in turn, led to a higher likelihood of MHC graduation. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Audiovisual communication and therapeutic jurisprudence: Cognitive and social psychological dimensions.

PubMed

Feigenson, Neal

2010-01-01

The effects of audiovisual communications on the emotional and psychological well-being of participants in the legal system have not been previously examined. Using as a framework for analysis what Slobogin (1996) calls internal balancing (of therapeutic versus antitherapeutic effects) and external balancing (of therapeutic jurisprudence [TJ] effects versus effects on other legal values), this brief paper discusses three examples that suggest the complexity of evaluating courtroom audiovisuals in TJ terms. In each instance, audiovisual displays that are admissible based on their arguable probative or explanatory value - day-in-the-life movies, victim impact videos, and computer simulations of litigated events - might well reduce stress and thus improve the psychological well-being of personal injury plaintiffs, survivors, and jurors, respectively. In each situation, however, other emotional and cognitive effects may prove antitherapeutic for the target or other participants, and/or may undermine other important values including outcome accuracy, fairness, and even the conception of the legal decision maker as a moral actor. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On Vaccination & Chiropractic: when ideology, history, perception, politics and jurisprudence collide.

PubMed

Gleberzon, Brian; Lameris, Marlee; Schmidt, Catherine; Ogrady, Jillian

2013-09-01

The Palmers espoused anti-vaccination opinions in the early part of the 20(th) century, rejecting the germ theory of disease in favor of a worldview that a subluxation-free spine, achieved by spinal adjustments, would result in an unfettered innate intelligence; this, along with other healthful lifestyle choices, would allow a person to thwart disease by marshaling the body's natural recuperative abilities. Some chiropractors continue to staunchly champion the Palmer postulates, while others do not. At the national level, advocacy organizations publish conflicting position statements. We explore how this divisiveness has impacted chiropractic ideology, perceptions among students and practitioners, politics and issues of jurisprudence as reflected by the evolution of a standard of chiropractic practice in at least one Canadian province (Ontario). We opine that the chiropractic profession should champion a health promotion and disease prevention approach to vaccination, which would allow it to align itself with the broader healthcare community while not abandoning its traditional tenets.

Jurisprudence, Peyote and the Native American Church.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawson, Paul E.; Scholes, Jennifer

1986-01-01

Examines federal and state governments' attempts to suppress peyote use in Indian rituals as historically Christian-inspired. Focuses on questions of morality versus criminal law. Explains history and development of Native American Church of North America. Examines nine contemporary peyote trials. Concludes larger questions of tribal sovereignty…

Supreme Court Upholds Religious Liberty: Educational Implications.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mawdsley, Ralph D.; Russo, Charles J.

1994-01-01

Reviews a set of Supreme Court rulings that may dramatically alter the landscape of First Amendment jurisprudence: "Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah"; "Jones v. Clear Creek Independent School District"; "Lambs Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School District"; and Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills…

It's Time to Teach Jurisprudence in High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kahn, Stephen C.

1975-01-01

The concept of a "government of laws and not of men," representing the philosophy called legal positivism, is developed historically as it might be presented to a secondary school class. Some of the practical benefits from the teaching of the philosophy of law are also discussed. (JH)

Spanish American Customs, Culture and Personality.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reindorp, Reginald C.

This textbook develops a cross-cultural portrait of Latin America. Four major sections are concerned with the cultural blueprint, historical and social foundations, the social structure, and intellectual and economic life. Subchapters include: (1) the rise of the Spanish people, (2) administration and jurisprudence, (3) the church, (4) the…

"Too stubborn to ever be governed by enforced insanity": Some therapeutic jurisprudence dilemmas in the representation of criminal defendants in incompetency and insanity cases.

PubMed

Perlin, Michael L

2010-01-01

Little attention has been paid to the importance of the relationship between therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) and the role of criminal defense lawyers in insanity and incompetency-to-stand-trial (IST) cases. That inattention is especially noteworthy in light of the dismal track record of counsel providing services to defendants who are part of this cohort of incompetency-status-raisers and insanity-defense-pleaders. On one hand, this lack of attention is a surprise as TJ scholars have, in recent years, turned their attention to virtually every other aspect of the legal system. On the other hand, it is not a surprise, given the omnipresence of sanism, an irrational prejudice of the same quality and character of other irrational prejudices that cause (and are reflected in) prevailing social attitudes of racism, sexism, homophobia, and ethnic bigotry, that infects both our jurisprudence and our lawyering practices. Sanism is largely invisible and largely socially acceptable, and is based predominantly upon stereotype, myth, superstition, and deindividualization. It is sustained and perpetuated by our use of alleged "ordinary common sense" (OCS) and heuristic reasoning in an unconscious response to events both in everyday life and in the legal process. This paper examines the literature that seeks to apply TJ principles to the criminal law process in general, drawing mostly on the work of Professor David Wexler. It considers why the lack of attention that I have referred to already is surprising (given TJ's mandate and the fact that many TJ issues are inevitably raised in any insanity or IST case). The paper then considers why this lack of attention is not surprising, given the omnipresence of sanism. It will consider some of the actual counseling issues that might arise in these contexts, and offer some suggestions to lawyers representing clients in cases in which mental status issues may be raised. The paper concludes that we must rigorously apply therapeutic jurisprudence principles to these issues, so as to strip away sanist behavior, pretextual reasoning and teleological decision making from the criminal competency and responsibility processes, so as to enable us to confront the pretextual use of social science data in an open and meaningful way. This gambit would also allow us to address-in a more successful way than has ever yet been done-the problems raised by the omnipresence of ineffective counsel in cases involving defendants with mental disabilities. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Student Speech and the Internet: A Legal Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graca, Thomas J.; Stader, David L.

2007-01-01

This article lays the foundation of American First Amendment jurisprudence in public schools and examines recent cases relating to student Internet speech. Particular emphasis is placed on the ability of schools to regulate student off-campus Internet speech. School authorities who wish to regulate nonthreatening off-campus speech in the…

The Significance of Blackstone's Understanding of Sovereign Immunity for America's Public Institutions of Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snow, Brian A.; Thro, William E.

2001-01-01

Asserts that from the perspective of America's public institutions of higher education, Blackstone's greatest legacy is his understanding of sovereign immunity. Explores the similarities between Blackstone's understanding of sovereign immunity and the current jurisprudence of the U.S. Supreme Court. (EV)

Peri-viable birth: legal considerations.

PubMed

Sayeed, Sadath A

2014-02-01

Peri-viable birth raises an array of complex moral and legal concerns. This article discusses the problem with defining viability, touches on its relationship to abortion jurisprudence, and analyzes a few interesting normative implications of current medical practice at the time of peri-viable birth. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tax Credit Scholarship Programs and the Law

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sutton, Lenford C.; Spearman, Patrick Thomas

2014-01-01

After "Zelman v. Simmons-Harris" (2002), civil conflict over use of vouchers and taxes to purchase private education, especially in religious schools, largely remained an issue for state courts' jurisprudence. However, in 2010, it returned to the U.S. Supreme Court when Arizona taxpayers challenged the constitutionality of the state's…

Separation of Church and State? Remarks on "Rosenberger v. University of Virginia".

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Arval A.

1996-01-01

"Rosenberger" revises Establishment Clause jurisprudence in several aspects: (1) ends "Lemon versus Kurtzman" as a main precedent; (2) alters First Amendment law by holding that government efforts to treat religious speech differently amounts to discrimination against people based on their "viewpoint"; and (3)…

Children Are Unbeatable.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freeman, Michael

1999-01-01

Argues that outlawing corporal punishment of children by parents in the U.K. would be in line with developments in European jurisprudence. Maintains that the United Kingdom is in breach of several international law norms. Claims that prohibiting corporal punishment would lead to less abuse and thus less interference with parental autonomy.…

From "Amistad" to "Brown": The March for Justice in the Courts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Margaret Bush; Gatewood, Diane Ridley

1999-01-01

Analyzes four significant court cases that span the rise of a body of jurisprudence in the United States known as civil rights law. Describes each of these cases in detail showing the profound impact they have had on the rights of all citizens and, in particular, African Americans. (CMK)

Rosenberger v. Rector: The First Amendment Dog Chases Its Tail.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roth, Charles

1995-01-01

Discussion of the Rosenberger vs. Rector case, involving the ability of public universities to decide whether or not to fund religious speech, evaluates contemporary jurisprudence concerning the establishment and free speech clauses and applies theories in these areas to funding of student religious speech on college campuses. It also outlines…

Government Collection of Private Information: Background and Issues Related to the USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-12-23

3 History of Congressional Action ...term is defined in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Namely, government action constitutes a search when it intrudes upon a person’s “reasonable...eavesdropping deter vigorous citizen dissent and discussion of Government action in private conversation. For private dissent, no less than open public

Government Collection of Private Information: Background and Issues Related to the USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-12-09

3 History of Congressional Action ...in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Namely, government action constitutes a search when it intrudes upon a person’s “reasonable expectation of privacy...vigorous citizen dissent and discussion of Government action in private conversation. For private dissent, no less than open public discourse, is

Santa Fe v. Doe and The Secularization of America.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wales, Steven

2002-01-01

Suggests that the Supreme Court's Santa Fe v. Doe decision (involving voluntary, student-led prayer at high school football games) was erroneous. Concludes that the Supreme Court's jurisprudence in this area has effectively expunged religion from the public square, particularly public schools, by writing into the Constitution a strict wall between…

Religion and Education: A Human Rights Dilemma Illustrated by the Recent "Headscarf Cases"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Rhona K. M.

2007-01-01

Education and religion are indelibly linked: cultural precepts underpin education policies within the formal State education system, while education has a clear role to play in promoting tolerance. Clashes between religious beliefs and secular education pose problems for states as the current array of jurisprudence, particularly on Islamic dress…

Can Law Become Curricula's Guidance Counselor?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goslin, Kimberly G.

2008-01-01

This article asserts that curricula, a living text, ought to take into consideration the virtues of fairness, justice, and integrity as found in law, in order to judge controversial issues of curriculum. This assertion is argued through a comparison of jurisprudence and pedagogy, as well as law and curricula. Dworkin's (1986) contention of "law as…

Canadian High School Athletics and the Saga of Continuing Gender Discrimination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clarke, Paul T.

2013-01-01

In most Canadian jurisdictions, high school athletics are still governed by outdated and sexist views about participation. The author argues that the current approach is discriminatory and violates human rights laws. In addition, a careful analysis of the jurisprudence reveals a host of specious arguments that keeps athletically talented female…

The U.S. Supreme Court's Philadelphia Decade.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stivison, David V.

Before Washington, D.C. became the permanent home of the United States Supreme Court, first New York and then Philadelphia hosted its meetings. From 1791 to 1801 the Court met in Philadelphia. This paper reviews the highlights of the Court's cases during this formative decade. Among the most important developments in the Court's jurisprudence at…

Multi-tiered S-SOA, Parameter-Driven New Islamic Syariah Products of Holistic Islamic Banking System (HiCORE): Virtual Banking Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halimah, B. Z.; Azlina, A.; Sembok, T. M.; Sufian, I.; Sharul Azman, M. N.; Azuraliza, A. B.; Zulaiha, A. O.; Nazlia, O.; Salwani, A.; Sanep, A.; Hailani, M. T.; Zaher, M. Z.; Azizah, J.; Nor Faezah, M. Y.; Choo, W. O.; Abdullah, Chew; Sopian, B.

The Holistic Islamic Banking System (HiCORE), a banking system suitable for virtual banking environment, created based on universityindustry collaboration initiative between Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Fuziq Software Sdn Bhd. HiCORE was modeled on a multitiered Simple - Services Oriented Architecture (S-SOA), using the parameterbased semantic approach. HiCORE's existence is timely as the financial world is looking for a new approach to creating banking and financial products that are interest free or based on the Islamic Syariah principles and jurisprudence. An interest free banking system has currently caught the interest of bankers and financiers all over the world. HiCORE's Parameter-based module houses the Customer-information file (CIF), Deposit and Financing components. The Parameter based module represents the third tier of the multi-tiered Simple SOA approach. This paper highlights the multi-tiered parameter- driven approach to the creation of new Islamiic products based on the 'dalil' (Quran), 'syarat' (rules) and 'rukun' (procedures) as required by the syariah principles and jurisprudence reflected by the semantic ontology embedded in the parameter module of the system.

The persistence of low expectations in special education law viewed through the lens of therapeutic jurisprudence.

PubMed

Peterson, Richard

2010-01-01

For more than thirty-five years a paradigm of low expectations has infected efforts to educate children with disabilities and has been a persistent and stubborn obstacle to the successful implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and its predecessor, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA). This dilemma raises questions addressed in this paper: What is meant by low expectations in the context of Special Education Law? What are the root causes of this phenomenon, and what makes it so resistant to change? How does it impede implementation of the IDEA? And lastly, in what ways does the paradigm of low expectations impact children with disabilities socially, emotionally, and psychologically? The primary purpose of this paper is to consider these questions, particularly the last, utilizing therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ), a theoretical lens through which the emotional and psychological impact of the law and its processes upon those who interact in its context may be viewed and analyzed. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

"The ladder of the law has no top and no bottom": how therapeutic jurisprudence can give life to international human rights.

PubMed

Perlin, Michael L

2014-01-01

In the past two decades, therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) has become one of the most important theoretical approaches to the law. But, there has, as of yet, been puzzlingly little written about the relationship between TJ and international human rights law. To be sure, there has been some preliminary and exploratory work on the relationship between TJ and international law in general, but virtually nothing on its relationship to international human rights law in a mental disability law context. This paper seeks to focus on this lack of consideration, to speculate as to why that might be, and to offer some suggestions as to how to infuse some new vitality and vigor into this important area of law and social policy. In this article, first, I offer a brief explanation of TJ. Next, I discuss, also briefly, the impact (and the potential future greater impact) of the recently-ratified United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on this area. Then, I consider the sparse commentary currently available on the intersection between TJ and international law in general, and will speculate as to why this is so sparse. Then, I offer some thoughts as to the TJ/international human rights law connection, looking specifically at three questions that require far more attention from this perspective (access to counsel, the use of state-sanctioned psychiatry as a tool of political oppression, and the potential redemptive power of the CRPD), and describe a research agenda that scholars might turn to in furtherance of the investigation of the relationships between therapeutic jurisprudence, international human rights law and mental disability law. I conclude by calling on scholars, activists, advocates and practitioners to begin to take this connection seriously in their future work. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Differentiated Jurisprudence? Examining Students' Fourth Amendment Court Decisions by Region of Country

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torres, Mario S., Jr.

2012-01-01

This study examined federal and state court decisions related to student Fourth Amendment rights following the "New Jersey v. T.L.O." ruling in 1985. There has been minimal research in judicial treatment of students' Fourth Amendment rights across regions of the country and less to what extent regional rulings implicitly or explicitly…

An Analysis of First Amendment Jurisprudence on the Supreme Court Case of Locke v. Davey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herzog, Alexander John

2010-01-01

Scholarship programs authored by state legislatures may conflict with a state's constitution. In the case of "Locke v. Davey" 540 U.S. 807 (2003), Joshua Davey challenged the State of Washington's withdrawal of his Promise Scholarship claiming violation of his First Amendment rights under the United States Constitution. This…

Government Collection of Private Information: Background and Issues Related to the USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-03-02

3 History of Congressional Action ...discussed in this report have the potential to constitute a search as that term is defined in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Namely, government action ...unchecked surveillance power. Nor must the fear of unauthorized official eavesdropping deter vigorous citizen dissent and discussion of Government action in

Our Western Heritage: An Interview with Robert George

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iannone, Carol

2012-01-01

This article presents an interview with Robert George, who holds Princeton's celebrated McCormick Chair in Jurisprudence and is the founding director of the James Madison Program. George has served on the President's Council on Bioethics and as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He is also a member of the…

The Human Right of Home Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donnelly, Michael P.

2016-01-01

Homeschooling is legal and growing in many countries but is virtually forbidden by law in Germany and a few others. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has reviewed and upheld this ban. Is home education a human right? How do these courts employ their jurisprudence of proportionality to find banning home education does not violate relevant…

Producing a Tribal Citizenry Literate in Law and Jurisprudence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wall, Stephen

2015-01-01

The relationship between American Indians and the U.S. federal government and state governments is complicated. It is a relationship that controls almost all aspects of tribal life and has resulted in American Indians being the most legislated people in the United States. For many years tribal people relied on non-Native attorneys to help navigate…

Evolution of the Doctrine of Academic Abstention in American Jurisprudence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leas, Terrence

The purpose of this study was to determine the current legal status of U.S. postsecondary education by examining the legal doctrine of academic abstention, a theory by which U.S. jurists have hitherto avoided excessive legal interference with the academic affairs of colleges and universities. Since World War II, however, changes in the student and…

Knowledge Theory in Ibn Rushd Literature and Reflection Thereof on Its Educational Philosophy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Rsa'i, Mohammed

2018-01-01

This study aims to examine Ibn Rushd perceptions in terms of Knowledge and reflection thereof on his educational philosophy. This study reached at a conclusion that Ibn Rushd partaking had its important role in framing the Knowledge theory and maintain it away from deviations and in the same time originated much jurisprudences starting from…

Student Disability Claims in the UK and USA: Does the Jurisprudence Converge?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davies, Mark; Lee, Barbara A.

2008-01-01

Laws in the UK and the USA protect college students with disabilities from discrimination. The laws of both nations are complex and require institutions of higher education to accommodate qualified students. This article examines the requirements of both nations' laws with respect to the kinds of inquiries that may be made of students with…

Cultures in Collision: Cosmology, Jurisprudence, and Religion in Tlingit Territory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russell, Caskey

2009-01-01

The term "first contact" usually conjures up an image of a group of European soldiers landing on a beach in the New World, their ship anchored just offshore, while a large group of Natives approaches the soldiers. On both sides there is caution but also curiosity. Beyond the physical collision of two different peoples there is also a…

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (79th, Anaheim, CA, August 10-13, 1996). Law Division.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The law section of the Proceedings contains the following 12 papers: "Middle Justice: Anthony Kennedy's Freedom of Expression Jurisprudence" (Evelyn C. Ellison); "Defending the News Media's Right of Access to the Battlefield" (Timothy H. Hoyle); "The Freedom of Information Act and Access to Computerized Government…

Modernizing "San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez": How Evolving Supreme Court Jurisprudence Changes the Face of Education Finance Litigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saleh, Matthew

2011-01-01

This article aims to "modernize" the current legal debate over inequitable public school funding at the state and local level. The 1973 Supreme Court case of "San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez" established precedent, allowing for property-tax based education funding programs at the state-level--a major source…

The Right to Know and the Right Not to Know Revisited: Part One.

PubMed

Brownsword, Roger; Wale, Jeff

2017-01-01

Prompted by developments in human genetics, a recurrent bioethical question concerns a person's 'right to know' and 'right not to know' about genetic information held that is intrinsically related to or linked to them. In this paper, we will revisit the claimed rights in relation to two particular test cases. One concerns the rights of the 500,000 participants in UK Biobank (UKB) whose biosamples, already having been genotyped, will now be exome sequenced, and the other concerns the rights of pregnant women (and their children) who undergo non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT)-a simple blood test that can reveal genetic information about both a foetus and its mother. This two-part paper is in four principal sections. First, we sketch the relevant features of our two test cases. Secondly, we consider the significance of recent legal jurisprudence in the UK and Singapore. Thirdly, we consider how, the jurisprudence apart, the claimed rights might be grounded. Fourthly, we consider the limits on the rights. We conclude with some short remarks about the kind of genetically aware society that we might want to be and how far there is still an opportunity meaningfully to debate the claimed rights.

Fifth amendment taking and environmental protection under the police power: Historical development and a modest proposal to address the muddle

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Root, T.E.; Dotterrer, I.L.

1995-12-01

Under its developing {open_quotes}just compensation{close_quotes} jurisprudence, the United States Supreme Court has applied the constitutional requirement (of just compensation for taking private property for public use) to overly intrusive regulations. The application of the just compensation clause to governmental environmental protection activity has pitted the basic principle of protection of private property from government confiscation against another basic principle-the police power (which allows the government to regulate the use of property to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the people). The authors outline the muddle resulting from the conflict of these two constitutional principles after tracing the development ofmore » each. This article first outlines the general trend of increasing regulation of the uses of private property under environmental laws pursuant to the police power, and then outlines the development of Fifth Amendment just compensation jurisprudence (from eminent domain, through inverse condemnation, to regulatory taking). The authors urge Congress to authorize a Commission to review exercise of the police power and environmental protection legislation in light of the Fifth Amendment just compensation provision and to recommend legislation that will reconcile the two principles.« less

Striking a balance: conscientious objection and reproductive health care from the Colombian perspective.

PubMed

Cabal, Luisa; Olaya, Monica Arango; Robledo, Valentina Montoya

2014-12-11

Conscientious Objection or conscientious refusal (CO) in access to reproductive health care is at the center of current legal debates worldwide. In countries such as the US and the UK, constitutional dilemmas surrounding CO in the context of reproductive health services reveal inadequate policy frameworks for balancing CO rights with women's rights to access contraception and abortion. The Colombian Constitutional Court's holistic jurisprudence regarding CO standards has applied international human rights norms so as to not only protect women's reproductive rights as fundamental rights, but to also introduce clear limits for the exercise of CO in health care settings. This paper reviews Latin American lines of regulation in Argentina, Uruguay, and Mexico City to argue that the Colombian Court's jurisprudence offers a strong guidance for future comprehensive policy approaches that aim to effectively balance tensions between CO and women's reproductive rights. Copyright © 2014 Cabal, Olaya, Robledo. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

A school peer mediation program as a context for exploring therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ): Can a peer mediation program inform the law?

PubMed

McWilliam, Nicky

2010-01-01

This paper reports an exploratory study of a school peer mediation program implemented as an alternative way to manage bullying and other destructive conflict. The study explores the effects of the program on the well-being of members of the school community by examining perceptions of students, staff and a sample of parents and former students. Drawing on therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) the study explores whether the component parts of the program, separately or together, promote intended or unintended therapeutic effects. The preliminary findings of the study emphasise the importance of peer mediation training and suggest that existing scholarship in the area of school conflict resolution and peer mediation, when viewed through a TJ lens, may provide valuable insights into how to optimally configure programs for development and adoption in schools and other community settings. The study highlights the lack of attention paid by the legal system to valuable scholarship in the area of school conflict resolution and peer mediation, which may have implications for the understanding and development of legal processes and the law in general. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Beginners' operations and medical specialist standards : Avoidance of criminal liability and civil liability].

PubMed

Schneider, H

2018-05-16

In all phases, patients are entitled to receive medical treatment according to medical specialist standards. This does not mean that patients necessarily have to be treated by a medical specialist. Operations performed by "beginners", e. g. assistant physicians, are permitted. However, there are increased liability risks, both for the specialist and the assistant physician. Furthermore, there are risks of criminal responsibility for causing bodily harm by negligence or negligent manslaughter. This article portrays the requirements of civil liability and criminal responsibility concerning beginners' operations on the basis of cases and judgments of the Federal Court and the Higher Regional Courts in Germany. Additionally, the reception of the jurisprudence by the relevant legal literature will be discussed. Jurisprudence and legal literature categorize breaches of duty of care. Assistant physicians can be subject to contributory negligence liabilities, while specialists can bear liabilities for negligent selection, organization or supervision. Responsible specialist and assistant physicians can protect themselves (and the patient) and avoid legal risks by only performing operations adequate to their educational level or by delegating operations to beginners and ensuring intervention by a specialist by supervision of the operation which is suitable to the assistant physician's level of education.

A hypothetical neurological association between dehumanization and human rights abuses.

PubMed

Murrow, Gail B; Murrow, Richard

2015-07-01

Dehumanization is anecdotally and historically associated with reduced empathy for the pain of dehumanized individuals and groups and with psychological and legal denial of their human rights and extreme violence against them. We hypothesize that 'empathy' for the pain and suffering of dehumanized social groups is automatically reduced because, as the research we review suggests, an individual's neural mechanisms of pain empathy best respond to (or produce empathy for) the pain of people whom the individual automatically or implicitly associates with her or his own species. This theory has implications for the philosophical conception of 'human' and of 'legal personhood' in human rights jurisprudence. It further has implications for First Amendment free speech jurisprudence, including the doctrine of 'corporate personhood' and consideration of the potential harm caused by dehumanizing hate speech. We suggest that the new, social neuroscience of empathy provides evidence that both the vagaries of the legal definition or legal fiction of 'personhood' and hate speech that explicitly and implicitly dehumanizes may (in their respective capacities to artificially humanize or dehumanize) manipulate the neural mechanisms of pain empathy in ways that could pose more of a true threat to human rights and rights-based democracy than previously appreciated.

[Paradoxes in the judicial institution concerning decision-making in pediatric oncology].

PubMed

Sirvent, N

2010-02-01

In paediatric oncology, the medical decision-making process is characterized by the importance of what is at stake: the vital prognosis. Refusal of care, or, more specifically, refusal of a treatment, always appears "at the crossroads of multiple stakes... implicating an entourage [family members], a medical team, and rules of law that sometimes give rise to contradictory interpretations". Paradoxes in the judicial institution are evident on two levels: i) in the values established by the law; where adults are concerned, the law explicitly refuses to consider the biological survival of an individual as the supreme value; it gives priority to respect of the patient's wishes and his or her autonomy; for children, in contrast, the supreme value established by the law is biological survival; the physician must provide the care indispensable to protect the health of a minor at all cost; ii) between legal texts and jurisprudence; while the law authorizes a physician to override the parental authority when he judges a treatment necessary to protect the health of a minor, jurisprudence in pediatric oncology has always declined to define the best therapeutic strategy where a child's chances of survival are concerned. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Genetically Modified Foods at the Intersection of the Regulatory Landscape and Constitutional Jurisprudence.

PubMed

Ghoshray, Saby

2015-01-01

An ecosystem...[y] ou always intervene and change something in it, but there's no way of knowing what all the downstream effects will be or how it might affect the environment. We have such a miserably poor understanding of how the organism develops from its DNA that I would be surprised if we don't get one rude shock after another.

Minimum Nuclear Deterrence Research

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-05-15

well as by additional experts interviewed in Paris (November 2002). One expert at the French MoD stressed the psychological importance of the 1940...continued to stress France’s commitment to "contributing to European security" specifically through the existence of its nuclear deterrent.43...Mondiale (Thesis, Paris, Librairie Générale de Droit et de Jurisprudence, 1966, p. 441) as cited in David Cumin , L’Arme

A Space for the European Higher Education Area: The Guidance from the EU Court of Justice to Member States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kwikkers, Peter; van Wageningen, Anne

2012-01-01

The European Court of Justice has developed a body of jurisprudence that regulates issues such as access, capacity, quality, student allowances and labour market needs, and that should be considered at least an even more important contribution to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) than the Bologna process. The Bressol and Chaverot cases…

O Direito Costumeiro na Legislacao e na Jurisprudencia do Brasil: A Desescravizacao (Common Law in Legislation and Jurisprudence in Brazil: Abolition of Slavery).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gebara, Ademir

2000-01-01

Demonstrates that in Brazil, common law was an important component for development of the political project, elaborated with the objective of organizing and disciplining the formation of a market of free workers. Considers that the history of work relations originated in the Portuguese discovery of Brazil in the 16th century. (BT)

Intelligence Preparation for Operational Resilience (IPOR)

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-01

unlimited distribution except as restricted below. Internal use:* Permission to reproduce this material and to prepare derivative works from this...material for internal use is granted, provided the copyright and “No Warranty” statements are included with all reproductions and de- rivative works...legal coun- sel regarding the latest state of jurisprudence . 2.1.3 Determine the Technological Environment Changes in the technical landscape can also

[No improvement of disciplinary jurisprudence since the implementation of the Individual Health Care Professions Act (IHCP Act)].

PubMed

Hout, F A; Cuperus-Bosma, J M; de Peuter, O R; Hubben, J H; van der Wal, G

2004-01-17

To compare the number and nature of the complaints, the complainants, the accused health professionals and the sanctions imposed by the disciplinary boards before and after the Individual Health Care Professions Act (IHCP Act) came into effect at the end of 1997. Descriptive, retrospective. The authors examined all 4980 verdicts pronounced by the disciplinary boards in the first instance during the period 1995-1997 (before the IHCP Act) and then during the period 1999-2001 (after the IHCP Act), together with the resulting appeal procedures involving physicians, dentists, pharmacists and midwives. The following were noted: the year of the verdict, the number and nature of the complaints, the types of complainants, the categories of professionals accused, the nature of the verdicts, and the number of appeal procedures. During the first period, 2453 complaints were brought before the disciplinary board, compared to 2527 during the second period. Most of the complaints were made against physicians (92% in both periods). The number of complaints that were declared to be justified fell from 19% to 15% (p < 0.001). In both periods, approximately half of the complaints concerned 'lack of care or inadequate care' or 'incorrect treatment', the most frequent verdict was a warning (67% and 72%, respectively), and appeals were lodged against almost one-third of the verdicts. The number of complaints submitted by the Inspectorate for Health Care decreased from 47 to 19. In any important aspects, the IHCP Act did not lead to improvement in the disciplinary jurisprudence. The decrease in the number of complaints that were declared to be justified could be explained by the change in composition of the disciplinary boards prescribed by the IHCP Act (more lawyers and less fellow professionals). Informing citizens about disciplinary jurisprudence and other procedures for lodging complaints may increase the number of justified complaints and hence the number of 'justified' verdicts. There is a need for further clarification of the tasks and responsibility of the Inspectorate for Health Care in case of complaints to the disciplinary boards.

Ethics education in chiropractic colleges: a North American survey.

PubMed

Kinsinger, Stuart; Soave, David

2012-07-01

The purposes of this study were to survey Council on Chiropractic Education-accredited chiropractic colleges in North America and to describe curricular details on the teaching of bioethics. A custom-designed survey was sent to chiropractic colleges. Total number of contact hours, whether the ethics was a stand-alone course or integrated elsewhere, type of instructor, and if there was a required or recommended course text were queried. Of 19 surveys sent by mail, 15 surveys were returned. The average time in ethics instruction was 18.7 hours including lecture format, small group tutorial, and self-study. Chiropractic ethics education includes 8 areas of content (boundaries, law and jurisprudence, professionalism, basic ethic tenets/principles, ethical codes of conduct, prevention of financial and of sexual abuse, and resolving an ethical dilemma). Some colleges include content taught to students under the domain of law and jurisprudence. The results of this survey indicate that there are opportunities to further develop the educational ethics program at Council on Chiropractic Education-accredited colleges. All colleges currently offer bioethics teaching. An expanded role for this content is recommended so as to offer optimal benefit for students and practitioners. Copyright © 2012 National University of Health Sciences. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Where Theory and Law Meet: Trends in establishment clause jurisprudence in the US federal courts and implications for science education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

King, Lance E.; Southerland, Sherry A.

2013-03-01

In this study, federal court opinions and writings of legal scholars, spanning 63 years of establishment clause jurisprudence in the US federal courts were analysed in an effort to determine dominant trends in judicial philosophy that are of significance to science educators. The study's findings suggest that the dominant legal theory underpinning the adjudication of establishment clause cases on the US Supreme Court has undergone a shift from one that emphasizes separation of church and state to one that favours integration of religion in the public sphere. This development poses significant challenges to science educators who are charged with the task of teaching in accordance with state science standards that emphasize topics that are considered controversial (e.g. evolution and global climate change) by many in the faith-based community. These findings constitute a basis for forecasting future actions in US courts regarding the role of government in establishing religious practices in the public sphere-particularly where such actions intersect with the roles of teachers in the nation's public K-12 science classrooms. Finally, we argue that scientists and science educators must adopt an assertive stance in defining science in curricular frameworks, providing something for the courts to draw upon in future decisions.

Discrimination, developmental science, and the law: addressing dramatic shifts in civil rights jurisprudence.

PubMed

Levesque, Roger J R

2014-01-01

The civil rights movement fostered dramatic shifts in legal responses to discrimination based on race, gender, and a host of other group characteristics. The legal system now evinces yet another dramatic shift, as it moves from considering difference to focusing on neutrality, from efforts that seek to counter subjugation to those that adopt a "color-blind" approach. The shifting approach already has reached laws regulating responses to the group that spurred massive civil rights reform: minority youth. The shift requires a different body of empirical evidence to address it and a new look at equality jurisprudence. This article notes the need to turn to the current understanding of prejudice and discrimination for guidance, and uses, as illustration, developmental science to shed light on the development, manifestation, and alleviation of invidious discrimination. Using that understanding, the analysis details how the legal system can benefit from that research and better address discrimination in light of dramatic changes in law. The article articulates the need to address discrimination by recognizing and enlisting the law's inculcative powers through multiple sites of inculcation, ranging from families, schools, health and justice systems to religious and community groups. The discussion concludes with brief suggestions for reform benefiting from understandings of prejudice and its expression. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Encouraging Legal Help Seeking for Victims of Intimate Partner Violence: The Therapeutic Effects of the Civil Protection Order

PubMed Central

Wright, Caroline Vaile; Johnson, Dawn M.

2016-01-01

Civil protective orders (CPOs) are the most widely used justice system remedy for intimate partner violence (IPV), and were implemented to ensure safety and increase victim participation in the justice system. Limited data exists regarding the effectiveness of CPOs; however, theories of therapeutic jurisprudence argue that legal interventions in and of themselves can improve mental health outcomes. To test this hypothesis, we examined the effectiveness of having a CPO issued against one’s abuser at improving the psychological sequelae of exposure to trauma. We used a longitudinal sample of female residents of battered women’s shelters who had experienced IPV (N = 106; 55% African American). One-way analyses of variance using gain scores indicated that PTSD symptoms (effect size ηp2 = .16) and incidents of sexual revictimization (effect size ηp2 = .09) decreased from baseline to 6-months postshelter for women who had a CPO against their most recent abuser compared to women without a CPO. These results support theories of therapeutic jurisprudence, suggesting that having a CPO can improve mental health outcomes. Limitations and clinical implications of our findings are discussed, including arguing for a coordinated service system that incorporates both legal and psychological assistance to improve the mental health of victims of IPV. PMID:23184312

A testable theory of problem solving courts: Avoiding past empirical and legal failures.

PubMed

Wiener, Richard L; Winick, Bruce J; Georges, Leah Skovran; Castro, Anthony

2010-01-01

Recent years have seen a proliferation of problem solving courts designed to rehabilitate certain classes of offenders and thereby resolve the underlying problems that led to their court involvement in the first place. Some commentators have reacted positively to these courts, considering them an extension of the philosophy and logic of Therapeutic Jurisprudence, but others show concern that the discourse surrounding these specialty courts has not examined their process or outcomes critically enough. This paper examines that criticism from historical and social scientific perspectives. The analysis culminates in a model that describes how offenders are likely to respond to the process as they engage in problem solving court programs and the ways in which those courts might impact subsequent offender conduct. This Therapeutic Jurisprudence model of problem solving courts draws heavily on social cognitive psychology and more specifically on theories of procedural justice, motivation, and anticipated emotion to offer an explanation of how offenders respond to these programs. We offer this model as a lens through which social scientists can begin to address the concern that there is not enough critical analysis of the process and outcome of these courts. Applying this model to specialty courts constitutes an important step in critically examining the contribution of problem solving courts. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A hypothetical neurological association between dehumanization and human rights abuses

PubMed Central

Murrow, Gail B.; Murrow, Richard

2015-01-01

Dehumanization is anecdotally and historically associated with reduced empathy for the pain of dehumanized individuals and groups and with psychological and legal denial of their human rights and extreme violence against them. We hypothesize that ‘empathy’ for the pain and suffering of dehumanized social groups is automatically reduced because, as the research we review suggests, an individual's neural mechanisms of pain empathy best respond to (or produce empathy for) the pain of people whom the individual automatically or implicitly associates with her or his own species. This theory has implications for the philosophical conception of ‘human’ and of ‘legal personhood’ in human rights jurisprudence. It further has implications for First Amendment free speech jurisprudence, including the doctrine of ‘corporate personhood’ and consideration of the potential harm caused by dehumanizing hate speech. We suggest that the new, social neuroscience of empathy provides evidence that both the vagaries of the legal definition or legal fiction of ‘personhood’ and hate speech that explicitly and implicitly dehumanizes may (in their respective capacities to artificially humanize or dehumanize) manipulate the neural mechanisms of pain empathy in ways that could pose more of a true threat to human rights and rights-based democracy than previously appreciated. PMID:27774198

[With the fourth sentence of the First Chamber on wrongful birth: is it possible to start talking about "jurisprudence"?].

PubMed

de Angel Yágüez, Ricardo

2005-01-01

Chamber number 1 of the Spanish Supreme Court of Justice has announced its fourth wrongful birth case decision dated December 18, 2003. The issue is whether we can state that with these four rulings there is a genuine law of precedent, that is, reiterated doctrine of the Supreme Court of Justice on this matter (Article 1.6 of the Civil Code).

Medicolegal aspects of sports medicine.

PubMed

Boggess, Blake R; Bytomski, Jeffrey R

2013-06-01

Legal issues in sports medicine are rapidly developing and establishing an important body of jurisprudence that defines the legal rights and duties of all those involved with protecting the health and safety of athletes. The law makes important distinctions between the relevant duty of care owed to high-school, college, and professional athletes because of the differing legal relationships that arise out of athletic participation at different levels of competition. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Bioethical language in the law and jurisprudence about bioethical problems].

PubMed

Corral García, Eduardo

2013-01-01

The impact is analyzed that on the Spanish Law relative to questions bioethics--as the Law on artificial reproduction, the Law of biomedical investigation, and the Law on sexual and reproductive health--can have the conception of human embryo enunciated by the Court of Justice of the European Union in his judgment of October 18, 2011, considering it to be any ovum fertilized with independence of the degree of reached development.

Air and Space Power Journal - Africa and Francophonie. Volume 7, Number 3, 3rd Quarter, 2016

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-01-01

decentralization, economic development of peripheral areas, etc.) or ad hoc humanitarian assistance to food crises.20 Given other EU peace-build- ing...Zengerling, Greening International Jurisprudence. 30. The Straits of Johor Case ( Malaysia v. Singapore); and Responsibilities and Obligations of States...crop failures and high food prices fuelled the civil unrest in Syria that descended into civil war.20 Worth noting is the fact that scholars remain

Iran’s Role in Iraq: Room for U.S.-Iran Cooperation?

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

international isolation, but could also increase its leverage on nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Rus- sia, the United Kingdom, and...Iranian- born Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, are wary of Iran’s velayat-e faghih (rule of the supreme jurisprudence ). Moreover, many Iraqis, including...foreign policy objectives, from decreasing Tehran’s international isolation to possibly gaining more leverage on nuclear negotiation. Therefore, it is

Advancing the sexual and reproductive health and human rights of women living with HIV: a review of UN, regional and national human rights norms and standards

PubMed Central

Khosla, Rajat; Van Belle, Nuna; Temmerman, Marleen

2015-01-01

Introduction The right to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is an essential part of the right to health and is dependent upon substantive equality, including freedom from multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that result in exclusion in both law and practice. Nonetheless, general and specific SRH needs of women living with HIV are often not adequately addressed. For example, services that women living with HIV need may not be available or may have multiple barriers, in particular stigma and discrimination. This study was conducted to review United Nations Human Rights Council, Treaty Monitoring Bodies and Special Rapporteur reports and regional and national mechanisms regarding SRH issues of women living with HIV. The objective is to assess areas of progress, as well as gaps, in relation to health and human rights considerations in the work of these normative bodies on health and human rights. Methods The review was done using keywords of international, regional and national jurisprudence on findings covering the 2000 to 2014 period for documents in English; searches for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and national judgments were also conducted in Spanish. Jurisprudence of UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies, regional mechanisms and national bodies was considered in this regard. Results and discussion In total, 236 findings were identified using the search strategy, and of these 129 were selected for review based on the inclusion criteria. The results highlight that while jurisprudence from international, regional and national bodies reflects consideration of some health and human rights issues related to women living with HIV and SRH, the approach of these bodies has been largely ad hoc and lacks a systematic integration of human rights concerns of women living with HIV in relation to SRH. Most findings relate to non-discrimination, accessibility, informed decision-making and accountability. There are critical gaps on normative standards regarding the human rights of women living with HIV in relation to SRH. Conclusions A systematic approach to health and human rights considerations related to women living with HIV and SRH by international, regional and national bodies is needed to advance the agenda and ensure that policies and programmes related to SRH systematically take into account the health and human rights of women living with HIV. PMID:26643455

Advancing the sexual and reproductive health and human rights of women living with HIV: a review of UN, regional and national human rights norms and standards.

PubMed

Khosla, Rajat; Van Belle, Nuna; Temmerman, Marleen

2015-01-01

The right to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is an essential part of the right to health and is dependent upon substantive equality, including freedom from multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that result in exclusion in both law and practice. Nonetheless, general and specific SRH needs of women living with HIV are often not adequately addressed. For example, services that women living with HIV need may not be available or may have multiple barriers, in particular stigma and discrimination. This study was conducted to review United Nations Human Rights Council, Treaty Monitoring Bodies and Special Rapporteur reports and regional and national mechanisms regarding SRH issues of women living with HIV. The objective is to assess areas of progress, as well as gaps, in relation to health and human rights considerations in the work of these normative bodies on health and human rights. The review was done using keywords of international, regional and national jurisprudence on findings covering the 2000 to 2014 period for documents in English; searches for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and national judgments were also conducted in Spanish. Jurisprudence of UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies, regional mechanisms and national bodies was considered in this regard. In total, 236 findings were identified using the search strategy, and of these 129 were selected for review based on the inclusion criteria. The results highlight that while jurisprudence from international, regional and national bodies reflects consideration of some health and human rights issues related to women living with HIV and SRH, the approach of these bodies has been largely ad hoc and lacks a systematic integration of human rights concerns of women living with HIV in relation to SRH. Most findings relate to non-discrimination, accessibility, informed decision-making and accountability. There are critical gaps on normative standards regarding the human rights of women living with HIV in relation to SRH. A systematic approach to health and human rights considerations related to women living with HIV and SRH by international, regional and national bodies is needed to advance the agenda and ensure that policies and programmes related to SRH systematically take into account the health and human rights of women living with HIV.

Sufism in Northern Nigeria: Force for Counter-Radicalization?

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-05-01

the promi- nent writer, jurisprudent, and preacher, Sheikh Abu - bakar Gummi. Born in the early 1920s, he first made a name for himself as a critic of...contemporary, religious and political. For al- though the Caliphate is now not what it used to be, it still has substance and its leaders, the Sultan ...priest—was the Sultan . Based in Sokoto, he claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad, an assertion that, rhetorically at least, made both him and

The Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001: vagueness and federalism.

PubMed

Swartz, Jonathan S

2002-01-01

On July 31, 2001, the U.S. House of Representatives passed The Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001. The legislation proposes a complete ban on somatic cell nuclear transfer to create cloned human embryos; it threatens transgressors with criminal punishment and civil fines. House Bill 2505 is the first human cloning prohibition to pass either chamber of Congress. This note argues that the bill is unconstitutionally vague and inconsistent with the Supreme Court's recent Commerce Clause jurisprudence.

U.S. Military Action Against the Islamic State: Answers to Frequently Asked Legal Questions

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-09

and exclusive power of the President as the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations”). U.S. Military Action...with relevant statutory authority,26 there has been little jurisprudence concerning the scope of presidential authority to order the use of force...29 Dames & Moore, 453 U.S. 678-679 ( internal citations omitted). 30 Medellin v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491, 531-532 (2008) ( internal citations omitted

Cloning: A Review on Bioethics, Legal, Jurisprudence and Regenerative Issues in Iran.

PubMed

Nabavizadeh, Seyedeh Leila; Mehrabani, Davood; Vahedi, Zabihallah; Manafi, Farzad

2016-09-01

In recent years, the cloning technology has remarkably developed in Iran, but unfortunately, the required legal framework has not been created to support and protect such developments yet. This legal gap may lead to abuse of scientific researches to obtain illegal benefits and to undermine the intellectual property rights of scientists and researchers. Thus to prevent such consequences, the attempts should be made to create an appropriate legal-ethical system and an approved comprehensive law. In this review we concluded that the right method is guiding and controlling the cloning technology and banning the technique is not always fruitful. Of course, it should be taken into accounts that all are possible if the religion orders human cloning in the view of jurisprudence and is considered as permission. In other words, although the religious order on human cloning can be an absolute permission based on the strong principle of permission, it is not unlikely that in the future, corruption is proved to be real for them, Jurists rule it as secondary sanctity and even as primary one. If it is proved, the phenomenon is considered as example of required affairs based on creation of ethical, social and medical disorders, religious and ethical rulings cannot be as permission for it, and it seems that it is a point that only one case can be a response to it and it needs nothing but time.

Cloning: A Review on Bioethics, Legal, Jurisprudence and Regenerative Issues in Iran

PubMed Central

Nabavizadeh, Seyedeh Leila; Mehrabani, Davood; Vahedi, Zabihallah; Manafi, Farzad

2016-01-01

In recent years, the cloning technology has remarkably developed in Iran, but unfortunately, the required legal framework has not been created to support and protect such developments yet. This legal gap may lead to abuse of scientific researches to obtain illegal benefits and to undermine the intellectual property rights of scientists and researchers. Thus to prevent such consequences, the attempts should be made to create an appropriate legal-ethical system and an approved comprehensive law. In this review we concluded that the right method is guiding and controlling the cloning technology and banning the technique is not always fruitful. Of course, it should be taken into accounts that all are possible if the religion orders human cloning in the view of jurisprudence and is considered as permission. In other words, although the religious order on human cloning can be an absolute permission based on the strong principle of permission, it is not unlikely that in the future, corruption is proved to be real for them, Jurists rule it as secondary sanctity and even as primary one. If it is proved, the phenomenon is considered as example of required affairs based on creation of ethical, social and medical disorders, religious and ethical rulings cannot be as permission for it, and it seems that it is a point that only one case can be a response to it and it needs nothing but time. PMID:27853684

Lineage and the Rights of Cloned Child in the Islamic Jurisprudence

PubMed Central

Moeinifar, Mohaddeseh; Ardebeli, Faezeh Azimzadeh

2012-01-01

Lineage in the Islamic law is one of the most basic human rights each individual inherits from his family. When modern assisted reproductive technologies appeared in recent decades, the issue of lineage and the child's rights did not encounter serious challenges. But with the advent of these technologies, the issue of the child's lineage resulting from new technologies has become the center of attention. These technologies have a large share in the field of medicine. A new technique known as cloning has entered the realm of science and technology. Considering the possibility of the widespread use of this technique, the subject of cloned child's lineage and his/her rights would be one of the major issues related to this subject. In this paper, the authors have examined the various aspects of the subject and the opinions of theologians in this regard in order to present a best solution to this issue. In fact, the fundamental concern in this paper is to figure out the relationship between the cloned child, the cell donor, the egg donor and the owner of the uterus. In this paper, after considering the concepts of the parentage and identical twins’ relationship would be explored and then a detailed analysis of the parental relationship and the Shiite jurisprudence scholars' opinion on these issues would be presented. Finally, the rights of cloned children would be taken into consideration. PMID:23926545

Lineage and the rights of cloned child in the islamic jurisprudence.

PubMed

Moeinifar, Mohaddeseh; Ardebeli, Faezeh Azimzadeh

2012-10-01

Lineage in the Islamic law is one of the most basic human rights each individual inherits from his family. When modern assisted reproductive technologies appeared in recent decades, the issue of lineage and the child's rights did not encounter serious challenges. But with the advent of these technologies, the issue of the child's lineage resulting from new technologies has become the center of attention. These technologies have a large share in the field of medicine. A new technique known as cloning has entered the realm of science and technology. Considering the possibility of the widespread use of this technique, the subject of cloned child's lineage and his/her rights would be one of the major issues related to this subject. In this paper, the authors have examined the various aspects of the subject and the opinions of theologians in this regard in order to present a best solution to this issue. In fact, the fundamental concern in this paper is to figure out the relationship between the cloned child, the cell donor, the egg donor and the owner of the uterus. In this paper, after considering the concepts of the parentage and identical twins' relationship would be explored and then a detailed analysis of the parental relationship and the Shiite jurisprudence scholars' opinion on these issues would be presented. Finally, the rights of cloned children would be taken into consideration.

"Braxton Hick's" or the birth of a new era? Tracing the development of Ireland's abortion laws in respect of European Court of Human Rights Jurisprudence.

PubMed

Daly, Brenda

2011-09-01

In Ireland, Article 40.3.3 degrees of Bunreacht na hEireann (the Irish Constitution) guarantees the right to life of the unborn child and the equal right to life of the mother. Abortion in Ireland is permissible only where there is a real and substantial risk to the mother's own life. Since Ireland became a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights in 1950,2 there have been concerns that it could result in Ireland being compelled to introduce a right to abortion. This article commences with a review of the extant law on abortion in Ireland, tracing the Constitutional protection afforded to the unborn child. The article will discuss the impact of the European Court of Human Rights' jurisprudence in regard to access to abortion and to information on abortion services in Ireland in an effort to ascertain if it really has resulted in a radical change to Irish abortion laws. As such, it will also be necessary to examine the more recent decisions of the ECtHR such as Tysiac v. Poland, and A, B, and C v. Ireland, to determine both the approach of the ECtHR to access to abortion in general and also to consider if it has resulted in a liberalisation of abortion law in Ireland.

[Judicial intervention of the DNA test (comment on decisions of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court No. 501/2005, of April 19, 2005, and No. 1311/2005, of October 14, 2005)].

PubMed

Libano Beristain, Arantza

2005-01-01

The controversy has been arisen by the Spanish Supreme Court in two recent judgments, as they clearly show the lack of a unique criterion in the Spanish jurisprudence when genetic data have to be analysed in the course of a criminal process, in order to identify a person. The DNA proof cannot be practised without judicial intervention under Spanish law.

[Reflexions on the aspects characterizing the new INAIL tables regarding occupational diseases].

PubMed

Fucci, P; Anselmi, E; Sacchetti, G

1995-01-01

The AA examine the new Tables for occupational diseases in industry and agriculture, which have recently approved with the Presidential Decree n.336, april 13, 1994. The main innovations are analysed, like the elimination of some too generic terms, which had often allowed contrasting interpretations and a non univocal jurisprudence. Other innovative aspects regard the new acquisitions of occupational medicine and strengthen, in the new formulation, the principles of the presumption of law in establishing a relation of cause and effect.

'People like that': realising the social model in mental capacity jurisprudence.

PubMed

Clough, B

2015-01-01

Through critical analysis of the law's traditional response to mental disorders in mental health and mental capacity law, it will be argued that a medicalised model of disability has been predominant, and still permeates jurisprudence in this area. It will be suggested that insights from the social model and relational understandings of rights can highlight the ways in which wider contextual and structural relations can impact upon the lived experience of mental impairment. Moreover, an understanding of the various dimensions of mental illness can help elucidate how the law can respond effectively to structural, institutional, and contextual factors in order to facilitate the enjoyment of purported rights and values. In light of this, it will further be argued that the lingering precedence given to a narrow, medical view of cognitive impairment is outmoded given the more richly textured understanding of cognitive impairments which has recently emerged. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) has harnessed the insights from the social model of disability and the capabilities approach to justice, and will be presented as the legal articulation of such understandings. This article seeks to build upon these understandings of disability and social justice and argue for the need for a more responsive state and judiciary in addressing the concerns highlighted by the UNCRPD and embedding these into judicial discourse. © The Author [2014]. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Kristeller maneuvers or fundal pressure and maternal/neonatal morbidity: obstetric and judicial literature review.

PubMed

Malvasi, Antonio; Zaami, Simona; Tinelli, Andrea; Trojano, Giuseppe; Montanari Vergallo, Gianluca; Marinelli, Enrico

2018-02-21

A significant amount of data concerning maternal-fetal damage arising from the exertion of Kristeller maneuvers (KMs) or fundal pressure (FP) go unreleased due to medicolegal implications. For this reason, the paper gathers information as to the real magnitude of litigation related to FP-induced damages and injuries. The authors have undertaken a research in order to include general search engines (PubMed-Medline, Cochrane, Embase, Google, GyneWeb) and legal databases (De Jure, Italian database of jurisprudence daily update; Westlaw, Thomson Reuters, American ruling database and Bailii, UK Court Ruling Database). Results confirm said phenomenon to be more wide ranging than it appears through official channels. Several courts of law, both in the United States of America (USA) and in European Union (EU) Member States as well, have ruled against the use of the maneuver itself, assuming a stance conducive to a presumption of guilt against those doctors and healthcare providers who resorted to KMs or FP during deliveries. Given how rife FP is in mainstream obstetric practice, it is as if there were a wide gap between obstetric real-life and what official jurisprudence and healthcare institutions-sanctioned official practices are. The authors think that it would be desirable to draft specifically targeted guidelines or recommendations on maneuvers during vaginal delivery, in which to point out exactly what kinds of maneuvering techniques are to be absolutely banned and what maneuvers are to be allowed, and under what conditions their application can be considered appropriate.

LEGAL DUTIES OF PHYSICIANS

PubMed Central

Sandor, Andrew A.

1951-01-01

The history of the physician's legal duties has been traced from the first recorded writings of the Babylonian era to the present day. There has been a transition from the days of absolute liability to the modern idea of liability based on culpability. The doctrine of stare decisis developed in early English law forms the very backbone of our own jurisprudence. Broadly, if a physician renders reasonable care and skill, he is absolved from liability. Some of the more important legal duties and proscriptions applying to physicians are discussed in particular in this presentation. PMID:14848696

[Ottoman juridical court cases related with medicine at the end of the 15th century].

PubMed

Sahillioğlu, Halil

2002-01-01

This is a study of the Ottoman archive documents on juridical court cases related with medicine. The main source is the qadi registers in Bursa, Turkey. The documents comprise the malpractice cases by physicians, the diagnosis of the leprous and the insane; and the decisions of qadis about several cases, for example, about a pharmacist, the personnel of the hospital etc. Thus, the article gives an idea about the tendency of the Ottoman officials on some medical-social problems, as well as the medical jurisprudence of the time.

Gene therapy, fundamental rights, and the mandates of public health.

PubMed

Lynch, John

2004-01-01

Recent and near-future developments in the field of molecular biology will make possible the treatment of genetic disease on an unprecedented scale. The potential applications of these developments implicate important public policy considerations. Among the questions that may arise is the constitutionality of a state-mandated program of gene therapy for the purpose of eradicating certain genetic diseases. Though controversial, precedents of public health jurisprudence suggest that such a program could survive constitutional scrutiny. This article provides an overview of gene therapy in the context of fundamental rights and the mandates of public health.

Captivity, citizenship, and the ethics of otherwise in the society-of-captives thesis: a commentary on Arrigo.

PubMed

Brown, Michelle

2013-06-01

In this engagement with Professor Bruce Arrigo's psychological jurisprudence model, I explore his critique of captivity and risk management. I am particularly interested in his claims that incarceration culminates in society's own captivity, that the most destructive aspect of captivity is its foreclosing of human difference and potentiality, and that a praxis that is both clinical and mindful might point a way out. By way of a case anecdote, I interrogate several of the key terms in Arrigo's formulation-citizenship, reform, revolution, and praxis-in an effort to further conjugate from the ground up such an innovative and important set of possibilities.

Memories of Ken Mason.

PubMed

Brazier, Margaret; McCall Smith, Alexander; Laurie, Graeme; McLean, Shelia; Jackson, Emily; Neal, Mary; Biggs, Hazel; Ost, Suzanne

2017-08-01

John Kenyon Mason (19 December 1919-26 January 2017), CBE, MD, LLD, FRCPath, DMJ, FRCPE, FRSE, and known as Ken Mason to us all, was Regius Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1973-1985 and thereafter Emeritus Professor of Forensic Medicine and Honorary Fellow in the School of Law at the University of Edinburgh. A formal obituary to Professor Mason is published in the Scotsman (http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-professor-ken-mason-medical-jurisprudence-pioneer-1-4357181). We offer some personal tributes to our friend and colleague. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE HEALTH LAW: OVERVIEW AND SUGGESTIONS.

PubMed

Liu, Kai; Tang, Daolu

2014-07-01

Health law is a rapidly developing law specialty in China. This article examines the current overall framework and evolution of Chinese health law, as a background to an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of this legal regime. Research suggests that: 1) The independent status of Chinese health law as jurisprudence and a specialty ought to be assured altogether; 2) The convergence between health law and other laws should be strengthened; 3) The current Chinese health law framework ought to be completed. This suggests the necessity to find ways to improve the independence of health law in China by eliminating the convergence and completing the legal framework.

Insane acquittees and insane convicts: the rationalization of policy in nineteenth-century Connecticut.

PubMed

Goodheart, Lawrence B

2017-12-01

A current situation in Connecticut of whether a violent insane acquittee should be held in a state prison or psychiatric facility raises difficult issues in jurisprudence and medical ethics. Overlooked is that the present case of Francis Anderson reiterates much of the debate over rationalization of policy during the formative nineteenth century. Contrary to theories of social control and state absolutism, governance in Connecticut was largely episodic, indecisive and dilatory over much of the century. The extraordinary urban and industrial transformation at the end of the Gilded Age finally forced a coherent response in keeping with longstanding legal and medical perspectives.

Manifold Restraints: Liberty, Public Health, and the Legacy of Jacobson v Massachusetts

PubMed Central

Colgrove, James; Bayer, Ronald

2005-01-01

February 2005 marks the centenary of one of the most important pieces of public health jurisprudence, the US Supreme Court case of Jacobson v Massachusetts, which upheld the authority of states to pass compulsory vaccination laws. The Court’s decision articulated the view that the freedom of the individual must sometimes be subordinated to the common welfare. We examined the relationship between the individual and society in 20th-century public health practice and law and the ways that compulsory measures have been used to constrain personal liberty for the sake of protecting the public health. (Am J Public Health. PMID:15798111

Chloroform-induced insanity defence confounds lawyer Lincoln.

PubMed

Spiegel, A D; Suskind, P B

1997-12-01

During an 1857 trial, the defence claimed that the accused should be absolved of wilful murder because an overdose of chloroform during surgery induced insanity. In a rare appearance as a prosecutor, Abraham Lincoln tried the case for the State of Illinois. Expert medical witnesses testified about the side effects of chloroform and chloroform-induced insanity. Significantly, Lincoln was not knowledgeable about medical jurisprudence and overlooked potential sources of evidence and expert witnesses. Defence lawyers presented an impressive array of physicians to testify about insanity, about chloroform and about the results of an overdosage during anaesthesia. Considering the state of scientific knowledge at the time, the trial was notable.

Non-adversarial justice and the coroner's court: a proposed therapeutic, restorative, problem-solving model.

PubMed

King, Michael S

2008-12-01

Increasingly courts are using new approaches that promote a more comprehensive resolution of legal problems, minimise any negative effects that legal processes have on participant wellbeing and/or that use legal processes to promote participant wellbeing. Therapeutic jurisprudence, restorative justice, mediation and problem-solving courts are examples. This article suggests a model for the use of these processes in the coroner's court to minimise negative effects of coroner's court processes on the bereaved and to promote a more comprehensive resolution of matters at issue, including the determination of the cause of death and the public health and safety promotion role of the coroner.

[The professional responsibility of the factory physician].

PubMed

Tavani, M

1987-01-01

The author briefly reviews the present trends in jurisprudence concerning the professional liability of the physician in penal and civil law and, in the light of the much discussed decree issued by the Court of Cassation (Court of Appeal) (Decree No. 2799/86 - Labour Section), discusses the juridical position of the factory doctor, the juridical relationship between the doctor and the workforce, his contractual obligations, his rôle and his duties. The aspects that are more specifically appropriate to assessment of the professional liability of the factory doctor are described, commenting on the various criteria that may justify, in matters other than industrial accidents, recognition of the existence of an occupational disease.

Judging sex.

PubMed

Tuerkheimer, Deborah

2012-09-01

This Article explores the curious jurisprudence of sexual patterns and how it constructs female sexuality. In modern rape law, the "unchaste character inference" expressly prohibited by the rape shield endures. Though the boundaries that circumscribe appropriate sexual conduct have shifted over time, courts persist in making normative judgments about women's sexuality. Cloaked in the legitimizing rhetoric of sexual patterns, retrograde notions of deviancy are substituting for rational deliberation on the question of consent. As rape shield law enters its fourth decade, it continues to defy reason, both in application and in theory. The proposed evidentiary approach promises to improve judicial decision making in rape cases, while reorienting the law toward the female sexual subject and the contingency of her consent.

Ethical and Legal Issues in Biobanking for Genomic Research in Nigeria

PubMed Central

Akintola, Simisola. O.

2013-01-01

The pursuit of genomic research and biobanking has raised concerns and discussions about the ethical and legal implications. Given the specific challenges that surround such enterprise in low and middle income countries, it is pertinent to examine them in the light of the advent of Biobanking and Genomic research in Nigeria. In this paper I discuss the issues and suggest model solutions derived from advanced jurisdictions. These ethical and legal issues are discussed within the context of the legal system of a typical African country whose jurisprudence derives from that of its erstwhile colonial master, the United Kingdom. This includes issues relating to law and human rights, informed consent, native and customary law. PMID:24353984

Heterodoxy, iconoclasm and spuriousness: the limits of novel expert evidence.

PubMed

Freckelton, Ian

2007-12-01

A difficult issue arises for courts' decision-making at common law and under statutory evidentiary regimes when expert opinions are significantly unorthodox, iconoclastic or methodologically flawed. This editorial analyses the relevant evidentiary principles and the Australian jurisprudence on the subject, giving particular attention to the decisions of the South Australian Supreme Court in R v Parenzee [2007] SASC 143 and R v Parenzee [2007] SASC 316 in which expert opinions about the existence, identifiability and transmissibility of HIV and its relationship to AIDS adduced on behalf of the defence in a criminal trial were found to be seriously wanting. A variety of factors indicative of low probative value in expert opinions are distilled.

Competition policy in patent cases and antitrust.

PubMed

Sobel, Gerald

2003-01-01

The article that follows examines the competition policy reflected in the decisions of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in its patent cases. The court's views on this subject have been manifested most plainly in decisions that have transformed the law concerning infringement under the doctrine of equivalents and claim construction. In both categories, the court narrowed patent scope by reason of its desire to protect competitors. The article argues that the court's premise in prescribing narrower claim scope reflected an incomplete view of competition policy. The court's analysis overlooked the benefits to competition provided by patents, which stimulate inventions and their development. The article traces the development of antitrust jurisprudence and demonstrates how respect for the contribution of patents to competition and skepticism of free-riding has evolved, particularly beginning in the 1970s. The article draws a parallel between the Court's reasoning about competition policy, on the one hand, and the rejected views of Justices Hugo Black and William O. Douglas and abandoned patent-antitrust jurisprudence, on the other. The Federal Circuit's decision in Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co., Ltd., 234 F.3d 558 (Fed. Cir. 2000), on the subject of equivalents is considered in the paper. In that decision, the majority adopted a new rule that completely barred infringement under the doctrine of equivalents of any claim limitation where, in prosecution, there had been a narrowing amendment relating to patentability. In the past, prosecution estoppel foreclosing equivalents had been subject to a "flexible bar," which, in some circumstances, allowed for equivalence notwithstanding such an amendment. The article points out that because almost all patents are amended during prosecution, the effect would be to allow widespread copying of patented inventions by trivial modifications of any narrowed claim limitation. The incentive to innovate in the future would be correspondingly diminished and the expectations of past patentees would be correspondingly altered.

[Informing patients in otorhinolaryngology: legislation, jurisprudence, and incidences in practice].

PubMed

Manaouil, C; Strunski, V

2007-03-01

The law of March 4, 2002 is the pedestal of legal responsibility in medicine in France. This law resumed data stemming from the jurisprudence but innovated also by establishing for example the "confidant" person and the direct access of the patient to his medical file. This law established or strengthened the rights of the patients: respect for dignity, respect for refusal of care, right to end-of-life care, right to adequate analgesia, right to the respect for professional confidentiality but also right to the information. The obligation of information is justified by the respect for the autonomy of the patient and by the necessity of obtaining a free and lit assent. Information is not only a preliminary to the medical act; it has to be done before, during and after. In case of complication, it will be reinforced. The information has to deal with the necessity of the medical act, the expected benefits, the possible urgency, the consequences, the normally predictable frequent or severe complications, the alternatives and the predictable consequences in case of refusal. The oto-laryngologist can refuse to perform an act prescribed by a colleague that he considers useless or too dangerous as compared to the benefit expected. The surgical oto-laryngologist in private practice has to prove that he informed his patient and it is his (compulsory) malpractice insurance that financially compensates the patient in case insufficient information leads the patient to lose his or her chance to refuse treatment. If the surgical oto-laryngologist practices in a public hospital, the establishment has to bring this proof of sufficient information, and in case of litigation, the hospital must provide compensation. One will note that the more difficult it is to justify the medical act, the less the judges tend to tolerate insufficient patient information. If the indication of the act is indisputable from a medical standpoint, then legally there is usually no ground for litigation due to insufficient information except possibly emotional damage.

An overview on ethical considerations in stem cell research in Iran and ethical recommendations: A review.

PubMed

Farajkhoda, Tahmineh

2017-02-01

Conducting research on the stem cell lines might bring some worthy good to public. Human Stem Cells (hSCs) research has provided opportunities for scientific progresses and new therapies, but some complex ethical matters should be noticed to ensure that stem cell research is carried out in an ethically appropriate manner. The aim of this review article is to discuss the importance of stem cell research, code of ethics for stem cell research in Iran and ethical recommendation. Generation of stem cells for research from human embryo or adult stem cells, saving, maintenance and using of them are the main ethical, legal and jurisprudence concerns in Iran. Concerns regarding human reproduction or human cloning, breach of human dignity, genetic manipulation and probability of tumorogenisity are observed in adult/somatic stem cells. Destruction of embryo to generate stem cell is an important matter in Iran. In this regards, obtaining stem cell from donated frozen embryos through infertility treatment that would be discarded is an acceptable solution in Iran for generation of embryo for research. Ethical, legal, and jurisprudence strategies for using adult/somatic stem cells are determination of ownership of stem cells, trade prohibition of human body, supervision on bio banks and information of Oversight Committee on Stem Cell Research. Recommendations to handle ethical issues for conducting stem cell research are well-designed studies, compliance codes of ethics in biomedical research (specifically codes of ethics on stem cell research, codes of ethics on clinical trials studies and codes of ethics on animals studies), appropriate collaboration with ethics committees and respecting of rights of participants (including both of human and animal rights) in research. In addition, there is a necessity for extending global networks of bioethics for strengthening communications within organizations at both the regional and international level, strengthening legislation systems, designing and establishing convenient collaborative educational courses at different levels.

An overview on ethical considerations in stem cell research in Iran and ethical recommendations: A review

PubMed Central

Farajkhoda, Tahmineh

2017-01-01

Conducting research on the stem cell lines might bring some worthy good to public. Human Stem Cells (hSCs) research has provided opportunities for scientific progresses and new therapies, but some complex ethical matters should be noticed to ensure that stem cell research is carried out in an ethically appropriate manner. The aim of this review article is to discuss the importance of stem cell research, code of ethics for stem cell research in Iran and ethical recommendation. Generation of stem cells for research from human embryo or adult stem cells, saving, maintenance and using of them are the main ethical, legal and jurisprudence concerns in Iran. Concerns regarding human reproduction or human cloning, breach of human dignity, genetic manipulation and probability of tumorogenisity are observed in adult/somatic stem cells. Destruction of embryo to generate stem cell is an important matter in Iran. In this regards, obtaining stem cell from donated frozen embryos through infertility treatment that would be discarded is an acceptable solution in Iran for generation of embryo for research. Ethical, legal, and jurisprudence strategies for using adult/somatic stem cells are determination of ownership of stem cells, trade prohibition of human body, supervision on bio banks and information of Oversight Committee on Stem Cell Research. Recommendations to handle ethical issues for conducting stem cell research are well-designed studies, compliance codes of ethics in biomedical research (specifically codes of ethics on stem cell research, codes of ethics on clinical trials studies and codes of ethics on animals studies), appropriate collaboration with ethics committees and respecting of rights of participants (including both of human and animal rights) in research. In addition, there is a necessity for extending global networks of bioethics for strengthening communications within organizations at both the regional and international level, strengthening legislation systems, designing and establishing convenient collaborative educational courses at different levels. PMID:28462397

Letter: Can Islamic Jurisprudence Justify Procurement of Transplantable Vital Organs in Brain Death?

PubMed

Rady, Mohamed Y

2018-01-01

In their article, "An International Legal Review of the Relationship between Brain Death and Organ Transplantation," in The Journal of Clinical Ethics 29, no. 1, Aramesh, Arima, Gardiner, and Shah reported on diverse international legislative approaches for justifying procurement of transplantable vital organs in brain death. They stated, "In Islamic traditions in particular, the notion of unstable life is a way to justify organ donation from brain-dead patients that we believe has not been fully described previously in the literature." This commentary queries the extent to which this concept is valid in accordance with the primary source of Islamic law, that is, the Quran. Copyright 2018 The Journal of Clinical Ethics. All rights reserved.

'Appropriate' medical treatment: what's in a word?

PubMed

Phull, Jaspreet; Bartlett, Peter

2012-04-01

Following the amendments in the 2007 Act, there were several revisions made focusing largely on community treatment orders and deprivation of liberty of persons lacking capacity. One of the amendments included a requirement that 'appropriate treatment' be 'available' for compulsion to be imposed in a variety of contexts, most notably admission for treatment under section 3. The definition of appropriate medical treatment within the Act appears largely circular, and therefore of little assistance. The Code of Practice provides some guidance but does little to add to the statutory language. In terms of jurisprudence, there are three reported cases concerning the provision. These cases are analysed and their significance is discussed in an attempt to formulate a clearer definition for appropriate medical treatment.

Definition of life law and the situation with problems of China's life jurisprudence.

PubMed

Liu, Changqiu

2008-12-01

Life law is a new conception brought by the development of modern life science and biotechnology. There are many different ideas on the conception of life law in academy. The definition of life law should be footed on the domain of bioethics. Based on bioethics, life law is a group of legislations which are enacted or acknowledged by the state and implemented by the state compulsively with the goal of regulating all types of relations revolving the survival as well as terminal of human beings and some other creatures which play important roles in the maintenance of human's life and health. There are many problems in China's study on science of life law, which need paying special attention to by China's scholars.

Front-Stage Stars and Backstage Producers: The Role of Judges in Problem-Solving Courts1

PubMed Central

Portillo, Shannon; Rudes, Danielle; Viglione, Jill; Nelson, Matthew; Taxman, Faye

2012-01-01

In problem-solving courts judges are no longer neutral arbitrators in adversarial justice processes. Instead, judges directly engage with court participants. The movement towards problem-solving court models emerges from a collaborative therapeutic jurisprudence framework. While most scholars argue judges are the central courtroom actors within problem-solving courts, we find judges are the stars front-stage, but play a more supporting role backstage. We use Goffman's front-stage-backstage framework to analyze 350 hours of ethnographic fieldwork within five problem-solving courts. Problem-solving courts are collaborative organizations with shifting leadership, based on forum. Understanding how the roles of courtroom workgroup actors adapt under the new court model is foundational for effective implementation of these justice processes. PMID:23397430

Front-Stage Stars and Backstage Producers: The Role of Judges in Problem-Solving Courts().

PubMed

Portillo, Shannon; Rudes, Danielle; Viglione, Jill; Nelson, Matthew; Taxman, Faye

2013-01-01

In problem-solving courts judges are no longer neutral arbitrators in adversarial justice processes. Instead, judges directly engage with court participants. The movement towards problem-solving court models emerges from a collaborative therapeutic jurisprudence framework. While most scholars argue judges are the central courtroom actors within problem-solving courts, we find judges are the stars front-stage, but play a more supporting role backstage. We use Goffman's front-stage-backstage framework to analyze 350 hours of ethnographic fieldwork within five problem-solving courts. Problem-solving courts are collaborative organizations with shifting leadership, based on forum. Understanding how the roles of courtroom workgroup actors adapt under the new court model is foundational for effective implementation of these justice processes.

Inherent Anticipation in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industries.

PubMed

Goldman, Michael; Evans, Georgia; Zappia, Andrew

2015-04-15

Pharmaceutical and biotech research often involves discovering new properties of, or new methods to use, existing compositions. The doctrine of inherent anticipation, however, prevents the issuance and/or validity of a patent for discoveries deemed to have been implicitly disclosed in the prior art. This can be a barrier to patent rights in these technologies. Inherent anticipation therefore creates uncertainty for patent protection in the pharmaceutical and biotech sciences. Despite this uncertainty, Federal Circuit jurisprudence provides guidance on the boundaries of the inherent anticipation doctrine. In view of the case law, certain strategies may be employed to protect inventions that may potentially be viewed as inherent in the prior art. Copyright © 2015 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved.

Who needs capacity?

PubMed

Buchanan, Alec

2015-01-01

The UK Law Commission's Discussion Paper, Criminal Liability: Insanity and Automatism, recommends introducing the concept of capacity to the insanity defence. The concept of capacity has an established role in those parts of the law that concern the validity of the decisions that people make, for instance in composing a will or entering into a contract. Making mental capacity a criterion for criminal responsibility in a mentally disordered defendant, however, is potentially problematic. First, the term capacity already has several different meanings in the literature on the jurisprudence of mental abnormality. Second, using the concept of capacity in the way that the Law Commission proposes poses difficulties that relate to the provision of testimony by expert witnesses. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

From stack-firing to pyromania: medico-legal concepts of insane arson in British, US and European contexts, c. 1800-1913. Part I.

PubMed

Andrews, Jonathan

2010-09-01

This article surveys evolving and competing medico-legal concepts of pyromania and insane arson. Exploiting evidence from medical jurisprudence, medico-legal publications, medical lexicography and case histories, it seeks to explicate the key positions in contemporary professional debates concerning arson and mental derangement. A major focus is the application of the doctrines of moral and partial insanity, monomania, instinctive insanity and irresistible impulse to understandings of pyromania and insane arson. The limited extent to which mental defect provided a satisfactory diagnosis and exculpatory plea for morbid arson is also explored. Additionally, this article compares and contrasts contemporary debates about other special manias, especially kleptomania. Part 2 will be published in the next issue, History of Psychiatry 21 (4).

Intelligent Chatter Bot for Regulation Search

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Luise, María Daniela López; Pascal, Andrés; Saad, Ben; Álvarez, Claudia; Pescio, Pablo; Carrilero, Patricio; Malgor, Rafael; Díaz, Joaquín

2016-01-01

This communication presents a functional prototype, named PTAH, implementing a linguistic model focused on regulations in Spanish. Its global architecture, the reasoning model and short statistics are provided for the prototype. It is mainly a conversational robot linked to an Expert System by a module with many intelligent linguistic filters, implementing the reasoning model of an expert. It is focused on bylaws, regulations, jurisprudence and customized background representing entity mission, vision and profile. This Structure and model are generic enough to self-adapt to any regulatory environment, but as a first step, it was limited to an academic field. This way it is possible to limit the slang and data numbers. The foundations of the linguistic model are also outlined and the way the architecture implements the key features of the behavior.

Adding insult to injury?: the untoward impact of requiring more than de minimis injury in an Eighth Amendment excessive force case.

PubMed

Hoffman, Robyn D

2009-05-01

This Note explores the conflict over whether a prisoner must suffer more than de minimis injury to sustain an Eighth Amendment excessive force claim. It examines this conflict against the backdrop of the various standards the U.S. Supreme Court adopted in its Eighth Amendment prison conditions jurisprudence between 1976 and 1992, principally focusing on the 1992 Hudson v. McMillian decision. Moreover, this Note considers the intersection of "the evolving standards of decency," the "hands-off doctrine," and the Eighth Amendment injury requirement. Ultimately, this Note advocates that excessive force--when meted out as punishment--violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment regardless of whether a prisoner's injuries are more than de minimis.

Commentary: civil commitment and its reform.

PubMed

Simpson, Alexander I F

2015-03-01

Internationally, civil commitment laws have gone through substantial reforms in the past 50 years. Discernible shifts from the medically paternalistic to the excessively legalistic may be giving way to a blending of legislative intent under the rubric of therapeutic jurisprudence. In the light of those international movements, Shao and Xie describe how China's new mental health law shows the impact of these international and local influences on the development and practice of mental health law in China. The new Law was passed in 2012. It sets a broad vision for mental health services and mental health promotion in Chinese society as well as providing the legal framework for civil commitment. Practicalities of implementation may be highly significant in the success of the legislation. © 2015 American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

Coronial law and practice: a human rights perspective.

PubMed

Freckelton, Ian; McGregor, Simon

2014-03-01

Coronial law and practice inevitably impact upon the human rights of those affected by deaths. It is important that such rights be incorporated in how death investigations, up to and including coronial inquests, take place. This article explores the significant impact of the jurisprudence emanating from the European Court of Human Rights, as well as the application of such law by the courts of the United Kingdom and potentially in other countries. It argues that viewing the work of coroners through the lens of human rights is a constructive approach and that, although in the coronial legislation of Australia and New Zealand, many human rights, especially those of family members, and civil liberties are explicitly protected, there remain real advantages in reflecting upon compliance with human rights by death investigation procedures and decision-making.

Just a little bit more: when sports scientists cross the line.

PubMed

Fox, Tyler

2014-06-01

Sports science has attracted controversy for the role it plays in an athlete's career and health, but Australian jurisprudence lacks any discussion of their criminal and civil liability when athletes suffer personal or professional harm. This article explores how liability may attach to both sports doctors and sports scientists in the future based on principles from current case law. It finds that criminal and civil liability attaching to personal harm could be proven, provided that consent to the risks or the treatment has not been given. Establishing professional harm caused by negligent advice regarding whether a substance does not comply with the World Anti-Doping Code is arguable considering the athlete's vulnerability to be exposed to sanctions. Expert evidence regarding what, and how a substance, is taken will be crucial to establishing causation in manslaughter prosecutions.

[Driver's licence: responsibility, ethics and deontology].

PubMed

Lucas, P

1999-09-01

The new law enacted on march 23rd 1998 regarding driving-licence, which became effective on october 1st 1998, modifies the method for obtaining the different types of driving-licences. Its 6th annex enumerates a list of physical impairments and pathologies implying the denial, the limitation or the withdrawal of the driving-licence; it determines if a medical advice, and if the case which kind of medical advice, is required. This leads to new situations, for which no jurisprudence has been established to date, where not only the responsibility of the licence's applicant but also that of the examining physician could be suspected. The physicians are also confronted to ethical an deontological problems on which the medical authorities have not always given an opinion. This paper examines them in order to give some bases for reflexion and discussion.

Homicide committed by psychiatric patients: Psychiatrists' liability in Italian law cases.

PubMed

Terranova, Claudio; Rocca, Gabriele

2016-01-01

Interest in psychiatrists' professional liability in Italy has increased in recent years because of the number of medical malpractice claims. Professional liability for failure to prevent violent behaviour by psychiatric patients is particularly debated. This study describes three Italian cases in which health professionals - physicians and nurses - were found guilty of manslaughter for murders committed by psychiatric patients. Examination of the cases focuses on claims of malpractice, patients' characteristics, the circumstances of the homicide and the reasons for the court's judgment. In particular, the predictability of violent behaviour and the concept of causal links are examined in detail. The cases provide an opportunity for a study of comparative jurisprudence. The topics discussed are relevant not only to practicing psychiatrists but also to experts assessing medical liability in cases of criminal acts committed by psychiatric patients. © The Author(s) 2015.

INFORMED CONSENT: THE MEDICAL AND LEGAL CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME

PubMed Central

Séllos Simões, Luiz Carlos

2015-01-01

Objective: To assess the real importance of obtaining informed consent, through an appropriate form, and its role in the outcome from civil liability claims. Methods: The wordings of the current Brazilian law and jurisprudence were compared with rulings from the State Court of the State of Rio de Janeiro, in 269 civil liability claims against healthcare professionals and hospitals. Results: Favorable and unfavorable outcomes (i.e. acquittals and convictions) were compared, and possible variations in the verdicts were discussed in relation to whether informed consent forms had been filled out or not. Conclusions: Obtaining informed consent, by means of appropriate forms, is still not a widespread practice in the Brazilian healthcare or judicial systems. It is recommended that this practice be adopted in the manner described in this paper, since this is prescribed in Brazilian law. PMID:27022541

Procedural abortion rights: Ireland and the European Court of Human Rights.

PubMed

Erdman, Joanna N

2014-11-01

The Irish Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act seeks to clarify the legal ground for abortion in cases of risk to life, and to create procedures to regulate women's access to services under it. This article explores the new law as the outcome of an international human rights litigation strategy premised on state duties to implement abortion laws through clear standards and procedural safeguards. It focuses specifically on the Irish law reform and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, including A. B. and C. v. Ireland (2010). The article examines how procedural rights at the international level can engender domestic law reform that limits or expands women's access to lawful abortion services, serving conservative or progressive ends. Copyright © 2014 Reproductive Health Matters. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rethinking justice.

PubMed

Small, Mark A; Kimbrough-Melton, Robin

2002-01-01

Changes in the way people marry, bear children and live together, combined with the changing nature of support for families, has put pressure on the justice system to adjust to new family and community realities in order to accomplish justice goals. Although the entire legal system is implicated by the changing nature of families and communities, most scholars and practitioners have focused on the judicial system and those courts most relevant to family issues: namely, the juvenile, family, and criminal courts. As scholars and practitioners began to 'rethink justice,' whole new reform movements of therapeutic jurisprudence, restorative justice, and community justice (among others) have emerged to offer new paradigms for the administration of justice. In this essay we discuss ways in which families and the justice system interact to strengthen and weaken each other to accomplish justice goals. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Tobacco industry use of judicial seminars to influence rulings in products liability litigation

PubMed Central

Friedman, L C

2006-01-01

Objectives This paper examines the tobacco industry's efforts to influence litigation by sponsoring judicial seminars. Methods Thousands of internal tobacco documents were examined, including memos, reports, presentations, and newsletters. Connections to outside organisations were corroborated by examining tobacco industry financial records, budgets, and letters pledging funds. Facts about outside organisations were triangulated through examining their websites and publicly‐filed financial records, and verifying facts through their representatives' statements in newspaper and law review articles. Results There are direct financial ties between the tobacco industry and groups that organise judicial seminars in an effort to influence jurisprudence, and judges who attend these seminars may be breaching judicial ethics either by not inquiring about the source of funding or by ignoring funding by potential litigants. Conclusions The tobacco industry's attempts to clandestinely influence judges' decisions in cases to which they are a party endangers the integrity of the judiciary. PMID:16565460

Exploration of the association between apology and forgiveness amongst victims of human rights violations.

PubMed

Allan, Alfred; Allan, Maria M; Kaminer, Debra; Stein, Dan J

2006-01-01

Forgiving may lead to an improvement of mental health, and from a therapeutic jurisprudence perspective it is important to establish what aspects of judicial procedures can be changed to promote forgiving. The literature suggests that receiving an apology may encourage forgiving. However, there is a dearth of empirical research regarding the association between forgiving and apology in judicial settings. This paper reports the findings of a study that examined the association between forgiving and four restorative situations (i.e. excuse, admission of guilt, apology, and true sorriness) in a group of 134 victims of gross human rights violations who were actual or potential participants in the proceedings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The best predictors of forgiveness in this sample were gender and whether victims perceived wrongdoers to be truly sorry. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Carrying guns in public: legal and public health implications.

PubMed

Vernick, Jon S

2013-03-01

In District of Columbia v. Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own handguns in the home for protection, invalidating a Washington, D.C. law banning most handgun possession. The Heller decision, however, provided lower courts with little guidance regarding how to judge the constitutionality of gun laws other than handgun bans. Nevertheless, lower courts have upheld the vast majority of federal, state, and local gun laws challenged since Heller. One area in which some lower courts have disagreed has been the constitutionality of laws regulating the ability to carry firearms in public. This issue may be the next to be addressed by the Supreme Court under its evolving Second Amendment jurisprudence. Courts should carefully consider the negative public health and safety implications of gun carrying in public as they weigh the constitutionality of these laws. © 2013 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

Massacre of Canadian Army Medical Corps personnel after the sinking of HMHS Llandovery Castle and the evolution of modern war crime jurisprudence

PubMed Central

Doucet, Jay; McAlister, Vivian

2018-01-01

Summary Events after the sinking of the hospital ship Llandovery Castle on June 27, 1918, by the German submarine U-86 outraged Canadians. Survivors aboard a single life raft gave evidence that many of the 234 souls lost had made it to lifeboats but were rammed and shot by the submarine. Many of those who died were nurses. Three German officers were charged with war crimes after the war. The submarine’s captain evaded capture. The remaining two officers’ defence that they were following the captain’s orders failed and they were convicted. This ruling was used as a precedent to dismiss similar claims at the war crime trials after the Second World War. It is also the basis of the order given to members of modern militaries, including the Canadian Armed Forces, that it is illegal to carry out an illegal order. PMID:29806812

Public attitudes toward legally coerced biological treatments of criminals

PubMed Central

Berryessa, Colleen M.; Chandler, Jennifer A.; Reiner, Peter

2016-01-01

Abstract How does the public view the offer of a biological treatment in lieu of prison for criminal offenders? Using the contrastive vignette technique, we explored this issue, using mixed-methods analysis to measure concerns regarding changing the criminal's personality, the coercive nature of the offer, and the safety of the proposed treatment. Overall, we found that of the three variables, the safety of the pill had the strongest effect on public acceptance of a biological intervention. Indeed, it was notable that the public was relatively sanguine about coercive offers of biological agents, as well as changing the personality of criminals. While respondents did not fully endorse such coercive offers, neither were they outraged by the use of biological treatments of criminals in lieu of incarceration. These results are discussed in the context of the retributive and rehabilitative sentiments of the public, and legal jurisprudence in the arena of human rights law. PMID:28852535

Public attitudes toward legally coerced biological treatments of criminals.

PubMed

Berryessa, Colleen M; Chandler, Jennifer A; Reiner, Peter

2016-12-01

How does the public view the offer of a biological treatment in lieu of prison for criminal offenders? Using the contrastive vignette technique, we explored this issue, using mixed-methods analysis to measure concerns regarding changing the criminal's personality, the coercive nature of the offer, and the safety of the proposed treatment. Overall, we found that of the three variables, the safety of the pill had the strongest effect on public acceptance of a biological intervention. Indeed, it was notable that the public was relatively sanguine about coercive offers of biological agents, as well as changing the personality of criminals. While respondents did not fully endorse such coercive offers, neither were they outraged by the use of biological treatments of criminals in lieu of incarceration. These results are discussed in the context of the retributive and rehabilitative sentiments of the public, and legal jurisprudence in the arena of human rights law.

Competency and capacity: the legal and medical interface.

PubMed

Purser, Kelly; Magner, Eilis S; Madison, Jeanne

2009-05-01

The loss of legal competency, in the context of wills, enduring powers of attorney and advance directives, presents a challenge to individual autonomy. Both legal and medical practitioners have roles to play in determining when, and if, to infringe upon a person's sovereignty in order to provide for their protection. However, there is some evidence that inter-professional discussions are characterised by tension. Medical expertise is necessary to assess physical and mental capacity, but the legal concern is with competency, two distinct terms. It is argued here that cooperation between the legal and medical professions is essential in this area of practice. This article attempts to promote discussion of this objective by proposing therapeutic jurisprudence as a theoretical framework in which to reassess competency determinations, by reviewing the institutional structure and by suggesting that the adoption of a common and consistent terminology is essential.

Neuroscience and crime.

PubMed

Markowitsch, Hans J

2008-01-01

Jurisprudence will profit considerably from methods and applications of the neurosciences. In fact, it is proposed that the neurosciences will provide unique possibilities and advantages in understanding motivations and causes for staying lawful or for becoming unlawful. Neuroscientific models on brain-behavior interactions have profited considerably from the advent of neuroimaging techniques and genetic analyses. Furthermore, advances in interdisciplinary investigations, which combine conventional psychological and sociological explorations with biological examinations, provide refined insights into the question 'What makes us tick?' (Weiskrantz, 1973, British Journal of Psychology, 64, 511-520). The search for such interactions from the time of the nineteenth century to the present is briefly surveyed and it is concluded that the interdisciplinary approaches within and across neuroscientific fields will lead and have already led to a considerable expansion of our knowledge. The articles in this issue devoted to highlighting the latest neuroscience research related to criminal behavior underline the power of this new approach.

Massacre of Canadian Army Medical Corps personnel after the sinking of HMHS Llandovery Castle and the evolution of modern war crime jurisprudence.

PubMed

Doucet, Jay; Haley, Gregory; McAlister, Vivian

2018-06-01

Events after the sinking of the hospital ship Llandovery Castle on June 27, 1918, by the German submarine U-86 outraged Canadians. Survivors aboard a single life raft gave evidence that many of the 234 souls lost had made it to lifeboats but were rammed and shot by the submarine. Many of those who died were nurses. Three German officers were charged with war crimes after the war. The submarine's captain evaded capture. The remaining two officers' defence that they were following the captain's orders failed and they were convicted. This ruling was used as a precedent to dismiss similar claims at the war crime trials after the Second World War. It is also the basis of the order given to members of modern militaries, including the Canadian Armed Forces, that it is illegal to carry out an illegal order.

Commentary: UK perspective on competency to stand trial.

PubMed

Exworthy, Tim

2006-01-01

This commentary offers a perspective from another common law jurisdiction, specifically the law in England and Wales, where competency to stand trial on a criminal charge is known as fitness to plead. The commentary begins with a discussion on the principle of proportionality evident in health care decisions by way of comparison with the topic in the criminal arena. Fitness to plead is an historical legal concept and employs an intellectual test that has evolved very little since its appearance in case law. There have been amendments, through statute, to its procedure and outcomes following a determination of being unfit to plead. However, competency to stand trial in England and Wales remains a more marginal issue than in the United States. Recent developments in domestic and European jurisprudence have been related to consideration of the requirements for a fair trial, driven by the demands of the European Convention on Human Rights.

AAPL Practice Guideline for the Forensic Psychiatric Evaluation of Competence to Stand Trial: a Canadian legal perspective.

PubMed

O'Shaughnessy, Roy J

2007-01-01

Canadian legal tests of fitness to stand trial, while similar to tests in the United States, place less emphasis on rational understanding of the complexities of the trial process and greater emphasis on communicating with legal counsel. The limited cognitive capacity test has gained wide acceptance in Canadian jurisprudence as a balance between ensuring that an accused person can provide the necessary information to allow his legal counsel to defend him adequately while also minimizing the potential delay in a speedy trial. The tests have been criticized by organized psychiatry and legal scholars but have been supported by advocacy groups for the mentally ill. Canadian research on accused persons committed to hospitals for fitness evaluations suggests that this process may be used or, arguably, misused by psychiatrists to provide treatment to persons who would otherwise be inaccessible to psychiatric intervention. This raises complex ethics-related questions not yet fully addressed.

Euthanasia is not medical treatment.

PubMed

Boudreau, J Donald; Somerville, Margaret A

2013-01-01

The public assumes that if euthanasia and assisted suicide were to be legalized they would be carried out by physicians. In furthering critical analysis, we supplement the discourse in the ethics and palliative care literature with that from medical education and evolving jurisprudence. Both proponents and opponents agree that the values of respect for human life and for individuals' autonomy are relevant to the debate. Advocates of euthanasia and assisted suicide give priority to the right to personal autonomy and avoid discussions of harmful impacts of these practices on medicine, law and society. Opponents give priority to respect for life and identify such harmful effects. These both require euthanasia to remain legally prohibited. Proposals are emerging that if society legalizes euthanasia it should not be mandated to physicians. The impact of characterizing euthanasia as 'medical treatment' on physicians' professional identity and on the institutions of medicine and law should be examined in jurisdictions where assisted suicide and euthanasia have been de-criminalized.

Enforcer, manager or leader? The judicial role in family violence courts.

PubMed

King, Michael; Batagol, Becky

2010-01-01

Judicial supervision of offenders is an important component of many family violence courts. Skepticism concerning the ability of offenders to reform and a desire to protect victims has led to some judges to use supervision as a form of deterrence. Supervision is also used to hold offenders accountable for following court orders. Some family violence courts apply processes used in drug courts, such as rewards and sanctions, to promote offender rehabilitation. This article suggests that while protection and support of victims should be the prime concern of family violence courts, a form of judging that engages offenders in the development and implementation of solutions for their problems and supports their implementation is more likely to promote their positive behavioral change than other approaches to judicial supervision. The approach to judging proposed in this article draws from therapeutic jurisprudence, feminist theory, transformational leadership and solution-focused brief therapy principles. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Compensation of unforeseeable medical complications following cosmetic surgery finally made possible by ONIAM].

PubMed

Theissen, A; Pujol, N; Lascar, T; Flavin, P; Fuz, F; Niccolai, P

2015-02-01

In the absence of any proven medical fault by a plastic surgeon, the patient could not obtain compensation through national solidarity (as stipulated by the Law of March 4th 2002). Indeed ONIAM (France's National Office for Medical Accidents' Compensation) has always rejected any claims on the grounds that cosmetic surgery differs from medical care. Through its judgment of February 5th 2014, France's final Court of Appeals settled the question and considered cosmetic surgery as medical care; in case of serious injuries following unforeseeable medical complications, the patient may be compensated by ONIAM, as with any other medical act. This jurisprudence will certainly result in medical liability insurers be no longer those only responsible for compensation of injuries following cosmetic surgery. Plastic surgeons' insurance premiums should logically become cheaper. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Human rights advances in women's reproductive health in Africa.

PubMed

Ngwena, Charles G; Brookman-Amissah, Eunice; Skuster, Patty

2015-05-01

The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights recently adopted General Comment No 2 to interpret provisions of Article 14 of the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights Women. The provisions relate to women's rights to fertility control, contraception, family planning, information and education, and abortion. The present article highlights the General Comment's potential to promote women's sexual and reproductive rights in multiple ways. The General Comment's human rights value goes beyond providing states with guidance for framing their domestic laws, practices, and policies to comply with treaty obligations. General Comment No 2 is invaluable in educating all stakeholders-including healthcare providers, lawyers, policymakers, and judicial officers at the domestic level-about pertinent jurisprudence. Civil society and human rights advocates can use the General Comment to render the state accountable for failure to implement its treaty obligations. Copyright © 2015 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

MEDICINAL CANNABIS LAW REFORM: LESSONS FROM CANADIAN LITIGATION.

PubMed

Freckelton, Ian

2015-06-01

This editorial reviews medicinal cannabis litigation in Canada's superior courts between 1998 and 2015. It reflects upon the outcomes of the decisions and the reasoning within them. It identifies the issues that have driven Canada's jurisprudence in relation to access to medicinal cannabis, particularly insofar as it has engaged patients' rights to liberty and security of the person. It argues that the sequence of medicinal schemes adopted and refined in Canada provides constructive guidance for countries such as Australia which are contemplating introduction of medicinal cannabis as a therapeutic option in compassionate circumstances for patients. In particular, it contends that Canada's experience suggests that strategies calculated to introduce such schemes in a gradualist way, enabling informed involvement by medical practitioners and pharmacists, and that provide for safe and inexpensive accessibility to forms of medicinal cannabis that are clearly distinguished from recreational use and unlikely to be diverted criminally maximise the chances of such schemes being accepted by key stakeholders.

Qibla in the Mediterranean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rius-Piniés, Mònica

Orientation toward Mecca has been compulsory for Muslims in all time periods and in all places. In fact, mosques were built in such a way as to help believers to pray toward the right direction. Nevertheless, the alignment of the sacred buildings was not always exact, and many did not actually face the Kaaba. There are many reasons for this "mistake", the main one being that at the time of the construction of the most important mosques, the astronomical and geographical knowledge needed to make accurate calculations was lacking. In the Mediterranean area, the scholars who were most involved in this task were the fuqahā' (experts in Islamic jurisprudence) who were sometimes well versed in astronomical knowledge or, at least, were skilled in the practice of popular astronomy. The combination of astronomy and religion, mixed with the political and topographical conditions, produces a unique area of study which remains controversial today.

The alleged distinction between euthanasia and the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment: conceptually incoherent and impossible to maintain.

PubMed

Orentlicher, D

1998-01-01

Richard Epstein, in his book Mortal Peril, supports euthanasia and assisted suicide and rejects the distinction between them and withdrawal treatment. In this essay, Professor Orentlicher argues that Epstein is correct in finding no meaningful moral distinction between euthanasia and treatment withdrawal, examines the reasons why the distinction has persisted in American jurisprudence, and explains why the distinction has eroded. Epstein also concludes in his book that there is no constitutional right to euthanasia or assisted suicide. Professor Orentlicher's response is that constitutionality is not the appropriate inquiry; rather, the better question is whether to recognize a right to assisted suicide once a right to euthanasia in the form of terminal sedation already exists. He answers this question in the affirmative, arguing that assisted suicide enhances patient welfare and reduces risks of abuse in a world with euthanasia.

Le consentement libre et éclairé aux soins en psychiatrie

PubMed Central

Neilson, Grainne; Chaimowitz, Gary

2015-01-01

Résumé Le patient a le droit d’être informé sur les soins de santé qui lui sont proposés et de participer activement à la prise de décisions relativement à ces soins. Le respect de la dignité et de l’autonomie de la personne passe par le respect de son droit de prendre des décisions à propos de ses soins psychiatriques, notamment de refuser un traitement, pour autant qu’elle soit apte à prendre des décisions. Il importe que le psychiatre connaisse les fondements éthiques du consentement libre et éclairé et les exigences prévues par le droit en cette matière, y compris la jurisprudence. Le consentement n’est pas immuable, pouvant changer avec le temps, au fil de l’évolution des conditions et des circonstances. Par conséquent, le consentement doit être un processus continu.

PATENTS IN GENOMICS AND HUMAN GENETICS

PubMed Central

Cook-Deegan, Robert; Heaney, Christopher

2010-01-01

Genomics and human genetics are scientifically fundamental and commercially valuable. These fields grew to prominence in an era of growth in government and nonprofit research funding, and of even greater growth of privately funded research and development in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Patents on DNA technologies are a central feature of this story, illustrating how patent law adapts---and sometimes fails to adapt---to emerging genomic technologies. In instrumentation and for therapeutic proteins, patents have largely played their traditional role of inducing investment in engineering and product development, including expensive postdiscovery clinical research to prove safety and efficacy. Patents on methods and DNA sequences relevant to clinical genetic testing show less evidence of benefits and more evidence of problems and impediments, largely attributable to university exclusive licensing practices. Whole-genome sequencing will confront uncertainty about infringing granted patents but jurisprudence trends away from upholding the broadest and potentially most troublesome patent claims. PMID:20590431

Compulsory licensing of patented pharmaceutical inventions: evaluating the options

PubMed Central

Reichman, Jerome H.

2010-01-01

In this Comment, the author traces the relevant legislative history pertaining to compulsory licensing of patented pharmaceuticals from the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement of 1994 to the 2003 waiver to, and later proposed amendment of, article 31, which enables poor countries to obtain needed medicines from other countries that possess manufacturing capacity. The Comment then evaluates recent, controversial uses of the relevant legislative machinery as viewed from different critical perspectives. The Comment shows how developing countries seeking access to essential medicines can collaborate in ways that would avoid undermining incentives to innovation and other social costs attributed to compulsory licensing. It ends by defending the legality of recent measures taken to promote public health in developing countries, and by reminding developed countries that unilateral retaliation against such measures is demonstratably illegal under WTO foundational law and jurisprudence. PMID:19493070

When autonomy kills: the case of Sami Mbarka Ben Garci.

PubMed

Garasic, Mirko; Foster, Charles

2012-12-01

Foucault suggested that foreigners and criminals are treated in a particularly unfavourable way by the law. We find arguable support for that proposition in the case of Sami Mbarka Ben Garci. He was a Tunisian Muslim prisoner, charged with rape, held in an Italian prison. He went on a hunger strike, protesting his innocence. He was not force-fed, and was allowed to die. Hunger strikers are commonly force fed. We ask why he was not, and although the reasons in his case are not clear, we suggest that many prisoners perceived as being 'undesirable' (in the sense of being foreigners, or facing particularly serious allegations) are allowed to die (the rhetoric being that their autonomy is being respected), while other prisoners' autonomy would be violated in order to ensure survival. We explore the European and some domestic jurisprudence surrounding force-feeding, and conclude that the law is applied in a worryingly inconsistent way.

Preventive detention of sex offenders: the American experience versus international human rights norms.

PubMed

Janus, Eric S

2013-01-01

Nearly two decades after the birth of American Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) laws and the tolerant review of their legitimacy by American courts, European courts and international bodies are beginning to develop a jurisprudence of their own with regard to preventive detention. Applying international human rights norms, these bodies have been significantly less tolerant of preventive detention, looking not only at their design but also at their implementation. Simultaneously, American courts are showing the beginnings of a second look at SVP laws, inspired and informed not by promises about the future implementation of newly passed SVP laws, but rather by the sorry record of two decades of implementation. This article examines an American SVP scheme as it has been implemented over 20 years, contrasts the international perspective, and offers some speculation about the path of reform for American SVP schemes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The human rights responsibilities of multinational tobacco companies

PubMed Central

Crow, M

2005-01-01

This article explores various strategies which could be used to hold the tobacco industry accountable for human rights violations precipitated by its conduct. First, a brief overview of the international human rights regime and the tobacco related jurisprudence issued by human rights treaty bodies is provided. The article then explains how tobacco control advocates could promote more systematic consideration of governments' tobacco related human rights violations by reconceptualising the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in the language of rights. The feasibility of using the existing human rights framework to target the tobacco industry directly is analysed with the conclusion that this approach has serious limitations. Emerging human rights norms, which have greater potential to affect the industry's conduct, are presented. Finally, given the questionable authoritativeness of these norms, alternative ways that they could be employed to hold tobacco companies accountable for the rights related consequences of their activities are proposed. PMID:16046696

Psychiatric evaluation of civil capacity with the new Brazilian Statute of the Person with Disabilities.

PubMed

Abdalla-Filho, Elias

2017-01-01

The objective of this paper is to provide an update to psychiatrists regarding the new Brazilian Law for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities (BLI, Law 13,146 of 2015), and, specifically, to discuss potential implications of situations in which examination by a forensic psychiatrist points toward civil incompetence, while the above-mentioned law mandates full civil capacity for disabled persons. A study of Law 13,146/2015 was conducted, including a comparative analysis of legal and psychiatric approaches on the subject. This analysis revealed that the BLI has generated differences of opinion among legislators. However, the greatest difference seems to arise between the justice system and psychiatric expertise in relation to the difference of criteria adopted in the two approaches. The BLI is very recent; it should be revised in response to debates among psychiatrists and the criminal justice system, and especially as jurisprudence is formed over time.

[TRANSSEXUALISM].

PubMed

Collay-Sahuc, Béatrice

2015-07-01

Transsexualism is characterised by a person's strong wish to belong to the opposite sex and the obsessional desire to align their assigned sex to that with which they truly identify; it is a firm belief. For a long time, the chromosome analysis criterion led to all requests for legal identity change to be refused in civil registers. Nevertheless, following a judgement pronounced by the ECHR in 1992 and vehement trans-identity demands, the French state was forced to relax the conditions allowing social change to be undertaken. Under the influence of European law and other international provisions, legislative action was opened to debate. The bioethical laws of 29 July 1994, 6 August 2004 and 7 July 2011 did not, however, provide a legal framework for transsexualism. The question remains a matter for jurisprudence through the court of cassation. This case-law approach--a vector of legal insecurity and inequality--places transgender people in a highly-precarious social situation.

Islamic perspectives on human cloning.

PubMed

Sadeghi, Mahmoud

2007-01-01

The present paper seeks to assess various views from Islamic jurists relating to human cloning, which is one of the controversial topics in the recent past. Taking Islamic jurisprudence principles, such as the rule of necessity for self preservation and respect for human beings, the rule of la darar wa la dirar ('the necessity to refrain from causing harm to oneself and others') and the rule of usr wa haraj, one may indicate that if human cloning could not be prohibited, as such, it could still be opposed because it gives way to various harmful consequences, which include family disorder, chaos in the clone's family relationships, physical and mental diseases for clones and suffering of egg donors and surrogate mothers. However with due attention to the fact that the reasons behind the prohibition of abortion only restrict the destruction of human embryos in their post-implantation stages, human cloning for biomedical research and exploitation of stem cells from cloned embryos at the blastocyst stage for therapeutic purposes would be acceptable.

The gap between legal rules and practice in advertising non-registered pharmaceutical products. A new method of analysis.

PubMed

Wieringa, N F; de Meijer, A H; Schutjens, M D; Vos, R

1992-12-01

The market of non-registered pharmaceutical products is growing fast in number and overall costs, not only in the Netherlands, but also in other European countries. These products often give the impression that the consumer may expect 'an effect as from a drug'. Legally, there is a clear distinction between 'drugs' and 'commodities' in the Netherlands; the question is whether legislation and practice concur. In an investigation we analysed texts of advertisements for non-registered pharmaceutical products published in a popular magazine. A method was developed, based on the legal definition of a drug and jurisprudence, to determine in a qualitative and quantitative way the application of medicinal claims. It transpired that in 65% of the analysed advertisements explicit or implicit claims were made. These products should therefore be subject to drugs legislation. Thus, in the Netherlands there is a gap between legislation and practice in advertising non-registered pharmaceutical products.

Empirical research on the insanity defense and attempted reforms: evidence toward informed policy.

PubMed

Borum, R; Fulero, S M

1999-06-01

The paper addresses some common questions about the insanity defense and issues raised by commonly proposed "reforms." The first section begins with a brief description of the insanity defense and the reasons for its existence in the law. It then examines some of the popular myths and public misperceptions surrounding the insanity defense. The next three sections discuss proposed "reforms" and the empirical research that addresses their effect. These reforms, including various procedural changes in definitions, burden of proof, and expert testimony, the institution of a guilty but mentally ill verdict, and the abolition of the insanity defense itself, are reviewed, along with relevant research findings and policy issues. Finally, the development of sound conditional release programs for criminal defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity is proposed as a reform option which could serve the objectives of enhancing public safety and access to appropriate treatment while continuing to meet the objectives of the insanity defense within criminal jurisprudence.

Empirical research on the insanity defense and attempted reforms: evidence toward informed policy.

PubMed

Borum, R; Fulero, S M

1999-02-01

This paper addresses some common questions about the insanity defense and issues raised by commonly proposed "reforms." The first section begins with a brief description of the insanity defense and the reasons for its existence in the law. It then examines some of the popular myths and public misperceptions surrounding the insanity defense. The next three sections discuss proposed "reforms" and the empirical research that addresses their effect. These reforms, including various procedural changes in definitions, burden of proof, and expert testimony, the institution of a guilty but mentally ill verdict, and the abolition of the insanity defense itself, are reviewed, along with relevant research findings and policy issues. Finally, the development of sound conditional release programs for criminal defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity is proposed as a reform option which could serve the objectives of enhancing public safety and access to appropriate treatment while continuing to meet the objectives of the insanity defense within criminal jurisprudence.

[The Best Interest of the Child in the Case of Surrogate Maternity].

PubMed

Garibo Peyró, Ana-Paz

2017-01-01

This article claims to analyze the situation of children born by means of surrogate maternity contract since these babies are one of the most vulnerable parts of this agreement, so their rights and interests could be affected in many ways. In order to study that situation, in the first place, has been accomplished a brief analysis of the concept of the best interest of the child. Afterwards it is examined the possible violation of the best interest of the child in the cases that have already been examined by Doctrine and Jurisprudence, that is, first the case of registration of these children in the country of origin Civil Registry of the intentional parents, and, in second place, the case of maternity benefit for intentional mothers. The article concludes with a reflection about other situations in where the best interest of children can be affected , such as their right to know their biological origins or the cases of identity problems.

The Supreme Court, abortion, and the jurisprudence of class.

PubMed Central

Mariner, W K

1992-01-01

The US Supreme Court's decision in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v Casey both protects a woman's liberty to choose to terminate her pregnancy and permits the state to make it more difficult for her to exercise her choice. In their opinion on the case, Justices O'Connor, Kennedy, and Souter eloquently defend constitutional protection of the right to make intimate decisions like continuing or ending a pregnancy. At the same time, they permit the state to try to persuade pregnant women not to have abortions and to make abortion harder to obtain and more costly, as long as the state's methods do not create an "undue burden" on the decision. Any restriction on abortion is a burden; whether it is "undue" (and therefore unconstitutional) depends on one's circumstances. The Court appears to view the difference between an undue burden and mere inconvenience from the perspective of privilege. The restrictions that were upheld may not significantly affect middle-class access to abortion, but they could prove insurmountable for many less privileged women. PMID:1443311

The legal aspects of conditional release in the criminal and civil court system.

PubMed

Weinstein, Naomi M

2014-09-01

This article considers the legal implications of conditional release in both the civil and criminal parts of the law. In the criminal context, conditional release takes the form of probation and parole. It also involves persons who are found to be incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity. In the civil context, conditional release exists for persons with mental illness and sex offenders who face mandatory outpatient treatment. The public policy behind conditional release is to allow certain persons the least restrictive alternative with proper oversight that will prevent the person from recidivating or being re-hospitalized. Conditional release is also used as a cost-saving mechanism in response to the overwhelming costs of incarceration and hospitalization. This article explores the issues of professional liability, third party liability, and individual rights in relation to conditional release. This article also addresses public policy concerns with conditional release and examines conditional release from a therapeutic jurisprudence perspective. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

From abstract to publication: the fate of research presented at an annual forensic meeting.

PubMed

Tambuscio, Silvia; Boghossian, Elie; Sauvageau, Anny

2010-11-01

In forensic sciences, the fate of abstracts presented at international meetings has not yet been assessed. The purpose of this study is to estimate publication ratio and evaluate possible predictors of publication after the 58th edition of the 2006 American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual meeting. Section of the meeting, type of presentation (oral platform or poster), number of authors per abstract and per paper, time span to publication, countries involved, and journal of publication were tabulated. A total of 623 abstracts were presented, from which 102 were subsequently published as a full paper. The overall publication rate was 16.4%, ranging from 3.4% (jurisprudence) to 28.8% (toxicology). The type of presentation (oral platform or poster) did not significantly affect the outcome of the abstract. However, a higher number of authors, foreign authors, and international collaboration were found to be good predictive factors of publication. © 2010 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Autonomy of children and adolescents in consent to treatment: ethical, jurisprudential and legal considerations.

PubMed

Parsapoor, Alireza; Parsapoor, Mohammad-Bagher; Rezaei, Nima; Asghari, Fariba

2014-06-01

Autonomy is usually considered as a main principle in making decisions about individuals' health. Children and particularly adolescents have the capacity to take part in medical decision-making to some extent. For the most part the parent-doctor-child/adolescent triangle sides are essentially in agreement, but this may not be true in some cases, causing physicians to face problems attempting to determine their professional duties. According to Islamic jurisprudent upon reaching the age of Taklif (15 full lunar years for boys and 9 full lunar years for girls) no one can be treated as incompetent based on mental immaturity unless his or her insanity or mental immaturity is provend Moreover the Islamic Sharia, decrees that parents should lose their authority to make medical decisions for their children, if their bad faith or imprudence is proven, in which case a fit and proper person or an institution will be appointed to make decisions in this respect based on the child's best interests.

Assessing potential legal responses to medical ghostwriting: effectiveness and constitutionality

PubMed Central

Chen, Chung-Lin

2018-01-01

Abstract Pharmaceutical companies are extensively involved in shaping medical knowledge to market their products to physicians and consumers. Specialized planning is undertaken to produce scientific articles driven by commercial interests. Rather than the listed authors, hidden analysts and publication management firms hired by pharmaceutical companies are often responsible for the content of scientific articles. Such ghostwriting practices raise serious concerns regarding the integrity of knowledge and thus demand urgent attention. This paper analyses the strategies of legal regulation on medical ghostwriting and their comparative advantages and disadvantages. Many of regulatory proposals suffer from a lack of effectiveness, whereas others are subject to constitutional concerns. The analysis in this paper offers insights into framing adequate regulation; it supports the strategy for reforming the structure of information production while calling for cautiousness in shaping its regulatory outline. In addition, this paper contributes to the analysis of First Amendment jurisprudence, suggesting that the judiciary should allow a certain amount of leeway for political branches to develop effective regulation PMID:29707217

Sociodemographic Predictors of Sex Offender Stigma: How Politics Impact Attitudes, Social Distance, and Perceptions of Sex Offender Recidivism.

PubMed

DeLuca, Joseph S; Vaccaro, John; Rudnik, Amalia; Graham, Nicole; Giannicchi, Anna; Yanos, Philip T

2017-08-01

Stigma toward general criminal offenders has been found to be particularly salient among community members who identify as politically conservative; however, less is known about how political identification relates to stigma toward sex offenders. This is a particularly important area of inquiry, given that criminal jurisprudence and politics legitimatize stigmatizing labels attributed to sex offenders through laws and policies that apply specifically to this group. A nonrandom sample ( N = 518) of participants living in the United States was recruited for this survey study. Findings indicated that a specific aspect of conservative political ideology-right-wing authoritarianism (RWA)-significantly predicts negative attitudes and intended social distancing behavior toward sex offenders, even when controlling for other important predictors, such as education and prior contact. RWA was found to be the strongest predictor of negative attitudes and estimations of sex offender recidivism, and also significantly predicted intended social distancing behavior. Implications for addressing stigma toward sex offenders are discussed.

High-Rise Construction in Densely Dwelled Cities: Requirements for Premises Insolation and Consequences of their Violation in Russian Law and Jurisprudence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gongalo, Boris; Gudovicheva, Lubov; Gubareva, Anna; Dobrynina, Larisa

2018-03-01

The issues of constructing high-rise, primarily residential, buildings have a great social significance. Not every plot of land, acquired in the Russian Federation is suitable for high-rise construction. Therefore, every construction company that plans to erect a multi-apartment building, a high-rise office building, or a skyscraper must take into account not only technical norms but as well sanitary legislation regulations that set obligatory requirements about insolation of apartments. The article includes a short study of several norms in the Russian legislation regarding insolation of dwellings; analises the problems of judicial interpretation of the statutory limitations. In this aspect it researches the debatable questions arising in practice of state arbitration courts dealing with the lawsuits on allocation of land-plots by the local administration. The analysis of the judicial practice is followed by description of the difficulties facing the developers of land-plots, concerning the project and territorial planning documentation.

Actual innocence: is death different?

PubMed

Acker, James R

2009-01-01

Supreme Court jurisprudence relies heavily on the premise that "death is different" from other criminal sanctions, and that capital cases entail commensurately demanding standards of reliability. Although invoked most frequently with respect to sentencing, both precedent and logic suggest that heightened reliability applies as well to guilt determination in capital trials. Nevertheless, recurrent and highly visible wrongful convictions in capital cases have affected public opinion, contributed to a precipitous decline in new death sentences, and led to calls for reforms designed to guard against the risk of executing innocent persons. This article examines the implications of the "death is different" doctrine for the problem of wrongful convictions in both capital and non-capital cases. It argues that innovations designed to enhance reliability in the special context of death-penalty prosecutions are important in their own right, but relevant new safeguards also should extend to criminal cases generally, where innocent people are similarly at risk and wrongful convictions are far more prevalent. (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Civil commitment and the criminal insanity plea in Israeli law.

PubMed

Toib, Josef A

2008-01-01

In Israeli jurisprudence there is a substantial difference towards mentally ill patients between the civil and penal law systems that goes well beyond differences required by their separate objectives. Mentally ill people dangerous to others due to their illness belong in the hospital, not in the community or in jail. The data gathered especially for this paper make it hard to escape the conclusion that contemporary practice in Israel does not accord with this objective. On the civil front, inaccuracy in predicting who is dangerous may lead to involuntary commitment of people who are not dangerous. On the criminal side, too few people are sent to the hospital in Israel and correspondingly too many to jail. Comparison with US data and practice shows that on the civil side prediction has been improved by using actuarial methods, while on the penal side more up to date definitions of mental illness have been adopted. Whatever the appropriate solution for Israel, surely the first requirement is recognition of the problem.

The struggle for schizophrenia treatment: A case study.

PubMed

Kozlowski-Gibson, Maria

Individual of legal age with schizophrenia presenting anosognosia was abandoned, as a result of a court decision. Close family members were not allowed to provide medical follow-up, treatment, protection regarding his vulnerability, and preserve the dignity of their loved one. The issue was the court's prioritization of the autonomy of the individual over his mental health status. The purpose of this case study was to identify the pitfalls of a court case seeking medical follow-up and treatment for a family member with schizophrenia and anosognosia. The method was qualitative and the design was descriptive and instrumental, linking the law to the life experience resulting from the procedures for its implementation. This study examined the difference between clinical and medical-legal evaluation of the examinee. The application of the Therapeutic Jurisprudence principles to the high number of schizophrenia cases with anosognosia, the abandonment of the mentally ill, and family crisis call healthcare providers and the Judiciary for an improvement action of the process of guardianship. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Human rights and human dignity in the resolution of certain ethical questions in biomedicine.

PubMed

Wheatley, S

2001-01-01

As medical technology develops, new issues are raised as to how the use of this technology may comply or conflict with existing human rights standards and values. This article considers the application of human rights standards, and in particular the jurisprudence under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to the trade in human body organs, the selection of the sex of prospective children, and human reproductive cloning. The current domestic law and regulatory framework is examined, as well as international regulation of this area by the Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine. The author considers how the balance is to be struck between the ethical objections to many developments in biomedicine, and individual self-determination. It is suggested that, in order to be justified, any limitations on individual self-determination in the use of this new medical technology, should have a basis in the protection of human dignity.

Documenting death: public access to government death records and attendant privacy concerns.

PubMed

Boles, Jeffrey R

2012-01-01

This Article examines the contentious relationship between public rights to access government-held death records and privacy rights concerning the deceased, whose personal information is contained in those same records. This right of access dispute implicates core democratic principles and public policy interests. Open access to death records, such as death certificates and autopsy reports, serves the public interest by shedding light on government agency performance, uncovering potential government wrongdoing, providing data on public health trends, and aiding those investigating family history, for instance. Families of the deceased have challenged the release of these records on privacy grounds, as the records may contain sensitive and embarrassing information about the deceased. Legislatures and the courts addressing this dispute have collectively struggled to reconcile the competing open access and privacy principles. The Article demonstrates how a substantial portion of the resulting law in this area is haphazardly formed, significantly overbroad, and loaded with unintended consequences. The Article offers legal reforms to bring consistency and coherence to this currently disordered area of jurisprudence.

Causation in negligence: from anti-jurisprudence to principle--individual responsibility as the cornerstone for the attribution of liability.

PubMed

Bagaric, Mirko; Erbacher, Sharon

2011-06-01

Causation is one of the most esoteric and poorly defined legal principles. The common law standards of the "but for" test and common sense are, in reality, code for unconstrained judicial choice. This leads to a high degree of unpredictability in negligence cases. Changes to the causation standard following the torts reforms have done nothing to inject principle into this area of law: the concept of "appropriateness" is no more illuminating than common sense. Despite this, the trend of recent High Court decisions offers some prospect of clarifying the test for causation. Key themes to emerge are an increased emphasis on individual responsibility and the associated concept of coherency with other legal standards. This article examines the doctrinal reasons underpinning the increasingly important role of these ideals and suggests how they can be accommodated into the test for causation to inject greater coherence and predictability into this area of law.

The Role of International Human Rights Norms in the Liberalization of Abortion Laws Globally.

PubMed

Fine, Johanna B; Mayall, Katherine; Sepúlveda, Lilian

2017-06-01

International and regional human rights norms have evolved significantly to recognize that the denial of abortion care in a range of circumstances violates women's and girls' fundamental human rights. These increasingly progressive standards have played a critical role in transforming national-level abortion laws by both influencing domestic high court decisions on abortion and serving as a critical resource in advancing law and policy reform. Courts in countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Nepal have directly incorporated these standards into groundbreaking cases liberalizing abortion laws and increasing women's access to safe abortion services, demonstrating the influence of these human rights standards in advancing women's reproductive freedom. These norms have also underpinned national-level abortion law and policy reform, including in countries such as Spain, Rwanda, Uruguay, and Peru. As these human rights norms further evolve and increasingly recognize abortion as a human rights imperative, these standards have the potential to bolster transformative jurisprudence and law and policy reform advancing women's and girls' full reproductive autonomy.

‘THE NECESSITY MUST BE CONVINCINGLY SHOWN TO EXIST’: STANDARDS FOR COMPULSORY TREATMENT FOR MENTAL DISORDER UNDER THE MENTAL HEALTH ACT 1983

PubMed Central

Bartlett, Peter

2011-01-01

Current English law has few controls on the involuntary treatment of persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. In 2001, R (Wilkinson) v. Broadmoor Special Hospital Authority provided some hope that, in conjunction with the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), meaningful substantive and procedural standards for compulsory psychiatric treatment might be developed, but that hope has not been fulfilled. Using Wilkinson and the ECHR jurisprudence as a starting point, this article considers when, if at all, compulsory psychiatric treatment might be justified. In particular, it considers the difference between the ‘appropriateness’ standard of the English legislation and the ECHR requirement of ‘therapeutic necessity’, the requirements for appropriate procedure and appropriate legislative clarity, how the courts should deal with disagreements among treating physicians, and the relevance of the capacity and best interests of the detained person. PMID:22057417

State obligations to implement African abortion laws: employing human rights in a changing legal landscape.

PubMed

Ngwena, Charles G

2012-11-01

Women in the African region are overburdened with unsafe abortion. Abortion regimes that fail to translate any given abortion rights into tangible access are partly to blame. Historically, African abortion laws have been highly restrictive. However, the post-independence era has witnessed a change toward liberalizing abortion law, even if incremental for many jurisdictions. Furthermore, Article 14 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa has significantly augmented the regional trend toward liberalization by recognizing abortion as a human right in given circumstances. However, states are failing to implement abortion laws. The jurisprudence that is emerging from the European Court of Human Rights and United Nations treaty bodies is a tool that can be used to render African governments accountable for failure to implement domestic abortion laws. Copyright © 2012 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Causation in the court: the complex case of malignant mesothelioma].

PubMed

Lageard, Giovanni

2011-01-01

The aim of this paper is to carry out an analysis of the legal evolution in Italy of the assessment of causation i.e. cause and effect, in oncological diseases, a question taken into consideration by the High Court almost exclusively with reference to pleural mesothelioma. The most debated question when defining the causal association between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma is the possible role that any multiple potentially causative exposures could assume in the induction and development of the disease, and in particular the role of any asbestos exposure over the successive employment periods. Indeed, this is a subject on which, to date, no agreement has yet been reached in scientific doctrine: these divergences bear important practical significance from a legal point of view, since sustaining one thesis or another may constitute determining factors when ascertaining responsibility for individuals who, in the past, had decisional statuses in the workplace. Jurisprudence in the High Court took on an oscillating position on this question as from the early 2000s, which was divided into those who sustained the thesis of the relevance of any asbestos exposure over the successive employment periods and those who were of a different opinion, i.e. only the first exposure period has relevant causative effect. The point under discussion concerns, in particular, the adequacy of a probabilistic law only governing such a question. An important turning point was made in the year 2010 when two sentences were announced in the High Court, reiterating, in strict compliance with the principles affirmed by the United Sections in 2002, that a judge cannot, and must not, be satisfied with a general causation, but must rather reach a judgment on the basis of an individual causation. In particular, not only did the second of these two sentences recognise the multifactorial nature of mesothelioma, something which had almost always been denied in jurisprudence in the past, but it also established some very clear legal principles of law. Essentially, when ascertaining the causation, a judge should verify whether or not there is a sufficiently well established scientific law covering the question and whether such a law is universal or probabilistic. Should the latter be the case, then it is necessary to establish if the accelerating effect has been determined in the case in question, on the basis of the factual acquisitions. We must now wait for the concrete application of these principles by juridical bodies.

Adam Smith and dependency.

PubMed

Ozler, Sule

2012-06-01

The focus of this paper is the works and life of Adam Smith, who is widely recognized as the father and founder of contemporary economics. Latent content analysis is applied to his seminal text in economics, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The results reveal that Smith considers dependence on others a problem and sees the solution to this problem in impersonalized interdependence. In addition, his views on social dependency and personal dependency, reflected in his Lectures on Jurisprudence (1963) and The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), are analyzed. This analysis suggests a central tension between dependence and independence in Smith's writings. The personal dependency patterns he exhibited in his life, which also suggest a tension between dependence and independence, are identified through a reading of his biographies. Based on insights from psychoanalytic literature, this paper proposes that developing the ideas in the Wealth of Nations was part of Smith's creative solution to this tension. In particular, his solution to one individual's dependence on another was through a system of impersonalized interdependence. In other words, Smith defended against his personal dependence through his economic theorizing.

Establishing a compulsory drug treatment prison: Therapeutic policy, principles, and practices in addressing offender rights and rehabilitation.

PubMed

Birgden, Astrid; Grant, Luke

2010-01-01

A Compulsory Drug Treatment Correctional Center (CDTCC) was established in Australia in 2006 for repeat drug-related male offenders. Compulsory treatment law is inconsistent with a therapeutic jurisprudence approach. Despite the compulsory law, a normative offender rehabilitation framework has been established based on offender moral rights. Within moral rights, the offender rehabilitation framework addresses the core values of freedom (supporting autonomous decision-making) and well-being (supporting support physical, social, and psychological needs). Moral rights are underpinned by a theory or principle which, in this instance, is a humane approach to offender rehabilitation. While a law that permits offenders to choose drug treatment and rehabilitation is preferable, the article discusses the establishment of a prison based on therapeutic policy, principles, and practices that respond to participants as both rights-violators and rights-holders. The opportunity for accelerated community access and a therapeutic alliance with staff has resulted in offenders actively seeking to be ordered into compulsory drug treatment and rehabilitation. Crown Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Islam, brain death, and transplantation: culture, faith, and jurisprudence.

PubMed

Arbour, Richard; AlGhamdi, Hanan Mesfer Saad; Peters, Linda

2012-01-01

A significant gap exists between availability of organs for transplant and patients with end-stage organ failure for whom organ transplantation is the last treatment option. Reasons for this mismatch include inadequate approach to potential donor families and donor loss as a result of refractory cardiopulmonary instability during and after brainstem herniation. Other reasons include inadequate cultural competence and sensitivity when communicating with potential donor families. Clinicians may not have an understanding of the cultural and religious perspectives of Muslim families of critically ill patients who may be approached about brain death and organ donation. This review analyzes Islamic cultural and religious perspectives on organ donation, transplantation, and brain death, including faith-based directives from Islamic religious authorities, definitions of death in Islam, and communication strategies when discussing brain death and organ donation with Muslim families. Optimal family care and communication are highlighted using case studies and backgrounds illustrating barriers and approaches with Muslim families in the United States and in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that can improve cultural competence and family care as well as increase organ availability within the Muslim population and beyond.

Fitness to stand trial under international criminal law: the historical context.

PubMed

Freckelton, Ian; Karagiannakis, Magda

2014-06-01

Decision-making about fitness to stand trial and the consequences of a finding of unfitness are fundamental to the integrity of any criminal justice system. They create thresholds for when mentally and physically unwell people are mandated to participate in criminal proceedings and they address the outcomes of such decisions for unwell accused persons. The jurisprudence relating to fitness to stand trial under international criminal law has particular challenges and complexities. The origins of contemporary controversies and the bases for modern decisions lie in rulings by the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. The decisions relating to Gustav Krupp, Rudolf Hess, Julius Streicher and Shumei Okawa wrestled with issues that have since recurred in respect of how trial systems should respond to unwellness going to the heart of whether persons can participate meaningfully in their own trials but dealing too with the temptation for persons accused of matters as serious as crimes against humanity and genocide to malinger, exaggerate symptomatology and to generate delays for strategic objectives.

[Impact of synthetic biology on patent law in view of of European jurisprudence].

PubMed

Bernardo Alvarez, María Angela

2014-01-01

The roots of synthetic biology--the redesign of biological molecules, structures and organisms--can be traced to the research developed by Jacques L. Monod and François Jacob in 1961. This field has undergone significant growth in the past ten years and its emergence has raised the question of whether the patent system is suitable to protect inventions in emergent areas as synthetic biology. The article will analyze the numerous scientific, socio-economic, ethical and legal challenges faced by synthetic biology, introducing the European Patent Law related to biotechnology as the minimum common framework and considering if more changes are needed to adequately protect the inventor rights, while taking into account the arrival of a new research culture, characterized by embracing open-innovation and open-source initiatives. The discussion will review some biotechnological patent law cases and summarize questions as whether isolated molecules of DNA are eligible for patent or the patentability of living matter, under the terms of Directive 98/44/EC. The article will finally consider the impact of synthetic biology on the European patent system.

The medical responsibility: current view from the Council of Physicians side.

PubMed

Squifflet, J P

2003-04-01

The medical responsibility has been clearly defined in the Royal Decree no. 78 dated November 11, 1967 concerning the medical practice. Moreover, several articles from the Ethical Code (Code de Déontologie) have clarified some social and economical responsibilities in the medical practice (articles 99 to 103) and the quality of patient care (article 36). The National Council has also published at least 31 advises facing the daily reality and the growing insecurity. That atmosphere is coming from the jurisprudence, the increasing responsibility insurance fees, the obligation of results instead of means, and the project of patient rights law. That project is currently dissociated from other projects such as an update on the medical responsibility and/or the no fault indemnity. Therefore, there is a current need for developing written patient information and using informed consent forms for risky surgical procedures. Before recognizing the no fault concept with indemnity, it is necessary to review the coverage of the responsibility insurance, educate the medical doctors in the no fault concept, study the mode of compensation for therapeutic hazards and differentiate the objective and subjective parts of the patient's chart.

Brain death revisited: it is not 'complete death' according to Islamic sources.

PubMed

Bedir, Ahmet; Aksoy, Sahin

2011-05-01

Concepts, such as death, life and spirit cannot be known in their quintessential nature, but can be defined in accordance with their effects. In fact, those who think within the mode of pragmatism and Cartesian logic have ignored the metaphysical aspects of these terms. According to Islam, the entity that moves the body is named the soul. And the aliment of the soul is air. Cessation of breathing means leaving of the soul from the body. Those who agree on the diagnosis of brain death may not able to agree unanimously on the rules that lay down such diagnosis. That is to say, there are a heap of suspicions regarding the diagnosis of brain death, and these suspicions are on the increase. In fact, Islamic jurisprudence does not put provisions, decisions on suspicious grounds. By virtue of these facts, it can be asserted that brain death is not absolute death according to Islamic sources; for in the patients diagnosed with brain death the soul still has not abandoned the body. Therefore, these patients suffer in every operation performed on them.

A Comparative Framework for Studying the Histories of the Humanities and Science.

PubMed

Bod, Rens

2015-06-01

While the humanities and the sciences have a closely connected history, there are no general histories that bring the two fields together on an equal footing. This paper argues that there is a level at which some humanistic and scientific disciplines can be brought under a common denominator and compared. This is at the level of underlying methods, especially at the level of formalisms and rule systems used by different disciplines. The essay formally compares linguistics and computer science by noting that the same grammar formalism was used in the 1950s for describing both human and. programming languages. Additionally, it examines the influence of philology on molecular biology, and vice versa, by recognizing that the tree-formalism and rule system used for text reconstruction was also employed in DNA genetics. It also shows that rule systems for source criticism in history are used in forensic science, evidence-based medicine, and jurisprudence. This paper thus opens up a new comparative approach within which the histories of the humanities and the sciences can be examined on a common level.

The human right to water and sanitation: a new perspective for public policies.

PubMed

Brown, Colin; Neves-Silva, Priscila; Heller, Léo

2016-03-01

The recognition of the human right to water and sanitation (HRtWS) by the United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Council in 2010 constituted a significant political measure whose direct consequences are still being assessed. Previous to this date, the HRtWS and its link to a healthy life and adequate standard of living had been recognised in diverse legal and judicial spheres worldwide, in some cases under the pressure of the initiatives of strong social movements. However, while the HRtWS is recognised by the UN State Members, it constitutes a concept in construction that has not been approached and interpreted in consensual ways by all concerned stakeholders. The present article presents a formal definition of this right with a base in human rights regulation. It attempts to dialogue with the different existing perspectives regarding the impact of its international recognition as a human right. It then elucidates the progressive development of the HRtWS in law and jurisprudence. Finally, it considers the urgency and challenge of monitoring the HRtWS and discusses important implications for public policies.

Satisfaction with the initial police response and development of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in victims of domestic burglary.

PubMed

Kunst, M J J; Rutten, S; Knijf, E

2013-02-01

The current study used a prospective design to investigate the association between early symptoms, satisfaction with the initial police response, and development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology in victims of domestic burglary (n = 95). Early symptoms and satisfaction with the initial police response were assessed through telephone interviews conducted within the first month after the burglary and PTSD symptoms 4 to 6 weeks after baseline. Separate regression models were tested for satisfaction with performance and satisfaction with procedure. Results suggested that early symptoms were a risk factor for PTSD symptomatology (β = .50, p < .001 and β = .48, p < .001) above and beyond levels of peritraumatic distress (β = .21, p < .05 and β = .22, p < .05) and irrespective of level of satisfaction (β = -.02, ns and β = -.10, ns). Victims with high levels of early symptoms, however, were clearly at an increased risk of PTSD symptomatology if they scored low on satisfaction at baseline. Results were discussed in light of the framework of therapeutic jurisprudence. Copyright © 2013 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Notifying patients exposed to blood products associated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: integrating science, legal duties and ethical mandates

PubMed Central

Caulfield, T; Dossetor, J; Boshkov, L; Hannon, J; Sawyer, D; Robertson, G

1997-01-01

The issue of notifying people who have been exposed to blood products that have been associated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has arisen at a time when the Canadian blood system is under intense scrutiny. As a result, the Canadian Red Cross Society issued a recommendation to health care institutions that recipients of CJD-associated blood products be identified, notified and counselled. Although Canadian jurisprudence in the realm of informed consent may support a policy of individual notification, a review of the scientific evidence and the applicable ethical principles arguably favours a policy of a more general public notification. Indeed, situations such as this require a unique approach to the formation of legal and ethical duties, one that effectively integrates all relevant factors. As such, the authors argue that individual notification is currently not justified. Nevertheless, if a system of general notification is implemented (e.g., through a series of public health announcements), it should provide, for people who wish to know, the opportunity to find out whether they were given CJD-associated products. PMID:9371070

The Role of International Human Rights Norms in the Liberalization of Abortion Laws Globally

PubMed Central

Fine, Johanna B.; Mayall, Katherine; Sepúlveda, Lilian

2017-01-01

Abstract International and regional human rights norms have evolved significantly to recognize that the denial of abortion care in a range of circumstances violates women’s and girls’ fundamental human rights. These increasingly progressive standards have played a critical role in transforming national-level abortion laws by both influencing domestic high court decisions on abortion and serving as a critical resource in advancing law and policy reform. Courts in countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Nepal have directly incorporated these standards into groundbreaking cases liberalizing abortion laws and increasing women’s access to safe abortion services, demonstrating the influence of these human rights standards in advancing women’s reproductive freedom. These norms have also underpinned national-level abortion law and policy reform, including in countries such as Spain, Rwanda, Uruguay, and Peru. As these human rights norms further evolve and increasingly recognize abortion as a human rights imperative, these standards have the potential to bolster transformative jurisprudence and law and policy reform advancing women’s and girls’ full reproductive autonomy. PMID:28630542

"Good and bad, I defined these terms, quite clear no doubt somehow": Neuroimaging and competency to be executed after Panetti.

PubMed

Perlin, Michael L

2010-01-01

There has been little consideration, in either the caselaw or the scholarly literature, of the potential impact of neuroimaging on cases assessing whether a seriously mentally disabled death row defendant is competent to be executed. The Supreme Court's 2007 decision in Panetti v. Quarterman significantly expanded its jurisprudence by ruling that such a defendant had a constitutional right to make a showing that his mental illness "obstruct[ed] a rational understanding of the State's reason for his execution." This article considers the impact of neuroimaging testimony on post-Panetti competency determination hearings, and looks at multiple questions of admissibility of evidence, adequacy of counsel, availability of expert assistance, juror attitudes, trial tactics, and application of the Daubert doctrine, and also considers the implications of the lesser-known Panetti holding (that enhances the role of expert witnesses in all competency-to-be-executed inquiries). It warns that the power of the testimony in question has the capacity to inappropriately affect fact-finders in ways that may lead "to outcomes that are both factually and legally inaccurate and constitutionally flawed." Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Brain-dead patients are not cadavers: the need to revise the definition of death in Muslim communities.

PubMed

Rady, Mohamed Y; Verheijde, Joseph L

2013-03-01

The utilitarian construct of two alternative criteria of human death increases the supply of transplantable organs at the end of life. Neither the neurological criterion (heart-beating donation) nor the circulatory criterion (non-heart-beating donation) is grounded in scientific evidence but based on philosophical reasoning. A utilitarian death definition can have unintended consequences for dying Muslim patients: (1) the expedited process of determining death for retrieval of transplantable organs can lead to diagnostic errors, (2) the equivalence of brain death with human death may be incorrect, and (3) end-of-life religious values and traditional rituals may be sacrificed. Therefore, it is imperative to reevaluate the two different types and criteria of death introduced by the Resolution (Fatwa) of the Council of Islamic Jurisprudence on Resuscitation Apparatus in 1986. Although we recognize that this Fatwa was based on best scientific evidence available at that time, more recent evidence shows that it rests on outdated knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon of human death. We recommend redefining death in Islam to reaffirm the singularity of this biological phenomenon as revealed in the Quran 14 centuries ago.

Iran's experience with surrogate motherhood: an Islamic view and ethical concerns.

PubMed

Aramesh, K

2009-05-01

Gestational surrogacy as a treatment for infertility is being practised in some well-known medical institutions in Tehran and some other cities in Iran. While the majority of Muslims in the world are Sunni, the majority of Iranians are Shiite. Most Sunni scholars do not permit surrogate motherhood, since it involves introducing the sperm of a man into the uterus of a woman to whom he is not married. Most Shiite scholars, however, have issued jurisprudential decrees (fatwas) that allow surrogate motherhood as a treatment for infertility, albeit only for legal couples. They regard this practice as transferring an embryo or fetus from one womb to another, which is not forbidden in Shiite jurisprudence. Nevertheless, there are some controversies concerning some issues such as kinship and inheritance. The main ethical concern of Iran's experience with gestational surrogacy is the monetary relation between the intended couple and the surrogate mother. While monetary remuneration is practised in Iran and allowed by religious authorities, it seems to suffer from ethical problems. This article proposes that this kind of monetary relation should be modified and limited to reimbursement of normal costs. Such modification requires new legislation and religious decrees.

Hoarding disorder and the legal system: A comparative analysis of South African and Dutch law.

PubMed

Cramer, Richard; Vols, Michel

Hoarding is an internationally recognised disability. Those who suffer from hoarding behaviour can be comfortably brought within the definition of disability found in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and should be provided with "reasonable accommodation" where doing so does not place an unjustified burden on others. However, hoarding also poses a threat to public health, and hoarders' behaviour may infringe on the rights of their neighbours and landlords. Thus, through their behaviour, hoarders may ultimately come into conflict with various areas of law, including neighbour law, housing law as well as administrative law. This article examines how hoarding may be addressed by the law in both South Africa and the Netherlands. It seeks to answer to what extent hoarders are provided with "reasonable accommodation" when their behaviour brings them into conflict of the law in these two jurisdictions. It also takes cognisance of the need to balance the provision of "reasonable accommodation" with the rights of neighbours and landlords. Finally, it seeks to assess which of the two jurisdictions provides the most balanced approach to handling hoarding, in light of the need for therapeutic jurisprudence. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recording routine forensic mental health evaluations should be a standard of practice in the 21st century.

PubMed

Siegel, David M; Kinscherff, Robert

2018-04-25

The standard of practice for forensic interviews in criminal and delinquency cases, other than those conducted as part of brief preliminary screening evaluations or in emergency situations, should include a digital recording requirement. This standard should be adopted because of the greater availability of, and familiarity with, recording technology on the part of mental health professionals, the greater use and proven effectiveness of recording in other contexts of the criminal justice system, and the improvement in court presentation and accuracy of judicial determinations involving forensic assessments that recording will provide. The experience of practitioners with recording since professional associations last studied the issue should be taken into account, as informal data suggest it has been positive. Unfortunately, the legal system is unlikely to prompt this advance without its reconsideration by the forensic mental health professions, because current constitutional jurisprudence does not require recording and effectively makes it contingent upon request by examiners. Forensic evaluators thus have a valuable opportunity to educate the legal system on the utility and importance of this key reform, and so should adopt it as a best practice. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[Respecting minors' autonomy in child custody cases].

PubMed

Santa Rosa, Bárbara; Corte-Real, Francisco; Vieira, Duarte Nuno

2013-01-01

Child custody decisions are among the most difficult for judges to make. The possibility of child abuse allegations or parents' deviant/ psychopathologic behaviours within this context, make the decision further complicated. Based on jurisprudence the listening of children opinion is a way to protect their best interest. In fact children have the right to express an opinion in all matters affecting their life. It should be given proper consideration to children opinion according with his/her age and maturity. Nonetheless custody disputes are emotionally draining issues. Asking the child to express an opinion during a public hearing, most likely in the presence of both parents, its not recommended because this is a potential stressful experience. Child interviews should take place in a proper environment and be set to their age. Medicine and Psychology have an important role in assessing children cognitive, emotional and volitional abilities, which is essential to properly account their opinions according to autonomy degree. This essay analyses the contribution of medico-legal and/or psychological exams to respect the autonomy of the child in cases of regulation of parental responsibilities. The conclusion is the need to establish a symbiotic relationship between the medical and legal perspectives of the (open) concept of child's best interests.

Integration Between Mental Health-Care Providers and Traditional Spiritual Healers: Contextualising Islam in the Twenty-First Century.

PubMed

Chowdhury, Nayeefa

2016-10-01

In the United Arab Emirates, neuropsychiatric disorders are estimated to contribute to one-fifth of the global burden of disease. Studies show that the UAE citizens' apathy towards seeking professional mental health services is associated with the 'religious viewpoints' on the issue, societal stigma, lack of awareness of mental health and lack of confidence in mental health-care providers. Mental health expenditures by the UAE government health ministry are not available exclusively. The majority of primary health-care doctors and nurses have not received official in-service training on mental health within the last 5 years. Efforts are to be made at deconstructing the position of mental illness and its treatments in the light of Islamic Jurisprudence; drafting culturally sensitive and relevant models of mental health care for Emirati citizens; liaising between Imams of mosques and professional mental health service providers; launching small-scale pilot programs in collaboration with specialist institutions; facilitating mentoring in line with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) outreach programmes for senior school Emirati students concerning mental health; and promoting mental health awareness in the wider community through participation in events open to public.

[Psychopathology service on ships].

PubMed

Nowosielski, Radosław; Mazurek, Tomasz; Florkowski, Antoni

2010-06-01

The aim of this study was to describe the specific engineering services and suitability of candidates for the psychophysical performance. Navy ships are equipped with equipment and weapons are controlled by electronic devices ship and crew. Advanced technology puts high demands on operator. For the ship's staff are recruited soldiers of the psychophysical characteristics predisposing to this kind of action. The paper uses personal experience to work in military units of the Navy, and data from the literature. Terms of sailing ships off the summer season are defined as difficult. The crew during a combat mission felt the risks associated with movements of the ship in difficult meteorological conditions, and associated with the implementation of the task. The development of ship's technical equipment, working in isolated groups, functioning within a limited space, noise, vibration, electromagnetic waves heighten the emotional burden on crew members. Military service on Navy ships require high psycho-physical predisposition, resistance to stress. The crucial factor is proper selection among the candidates based on psychiatric and psychological counseling for military and medical jurisprudence. Also plays a significant role for training doctors and specialists in psychoprophylaxy of military units in the field of mental hygiene.

A Brief History of Experimentation on Condemned and Executed Humans

PubMed Central

Kevorkian, Jack

1985-01-01

Experimentation on condemned men is assumed to have been a common practice in ancient Alexandria, but disappeared in Rome and during the Middle Ages. Sporadic cases were documented in the Renaissance and afterward, involving experiments both before and immediately after execution. The advent of the guillotine raised the question of possible persistence of consciousness after execution and that spurred much electrophysiological study of freshly decapitated heads and bodies. In 19th-century Europe, interest focused on cardiac function immediately after beheading. In the early 20th century, many condemned men in the Philippines were used by American physicians for their research on plague and beriberi. Briefly discussed is the relevance of the practice of human sacrifice in Homeric Greece and Mayan Yucatan, as well as experiments on black slaves in America. The Nazi medical crimes of World War II encompass a totally different morality, and are not really comparable to the matter at hand. They have, however, so stirred emotions as to discredit the general concept of experimentation associated with capital punishment. Even within the framework of our system of jurisprudence, the altruistic desires of many now languishing on death row are being ignored. PMID:3884824

Name-changes in post-war France: the traumatic experiences of the Shoah and its consequences on the second and third generation with reference to the example of name-changes.

PubMed

Masson, Céline

2013-02-01

Starting from our collective initiative to work on the theme of 'The strength of the name', which has given rise both to a conference as well as a documentary called: And their name, they have changed it, I have sought to draw attention in this article to the difference between proper names, patronymic names, and the so-called Name-of-the-father. Pronouncing names involves designating the languages of names, which also refer to the accents of names, since I have proposed the idea that each name is evocative of a language, and that changing it also modifies the language of the name. I have approached the question of the name by considering cases of name-changes, essential with regard to Ashkenazi Jewish families who changed their name after the Shoah, along with the trauma that numerous Jewish families suffered after the war. French jurisprudence does not permit reversion to the original name, once it has been changed to a more French-sounding name, owing to the immutability of the name and the foreign sound of the names of origin. Copyright © 2013 Institute of Psychoanalysis.

Off-label use of medicines: The need for good practice guidelines.

PubMed

Dooms, Marc; Killick, James

2017-01-01

'Off-label use' is the term used for the prescription and dispensing of a medicinal product for any indication, patient group, route of administration, dosage or treatment regimen other than that listed in the Summary of Product Characteristics. In this article the authors present a brief overview of current practices of off-label use in Europe and the applicable European law and jurisprudence. They then go on to present a set of guidelines for best practice in off-label use which underlines the need for guidance on prescription to be firmly rooted in the need to ensure patient safety above all other concerns. The article was written from desk research and expert engagement, including a presentation and Q&A in the European Parliament. This article intends to demonstrate that off-label use entails increased risks for patients, especially when it is not underpinned by rigorous clinical studies or the reporting routes for use are not well defined. Europe is seeing a growing trend the promotion of off-label prescription of medicinal products for reasons other than pure medical need, including motives such as cost-containment. This poses a numer of questions for the ethical and legal framework for medicine prescription and dispensing in Europe.

The potential impact of the World Trade Organization's general agreement on trade in services on health system reform and regulation in the United States.

PubMed

Skala, Nicholas

2009-01-01

The collapse of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Doha Round of talks without achieving new health services liberalization presents an important opportunity to evaluate the wisdom of granting further concessions to international investors in the health sector. The continuing deterioration of the U.S. health system and the primacy of reform as an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign make clear the need for a full range of policy options for addressing the national health crisis. Yet few commentators or policymakers realize that existing WTO health care commitments may already significantly constrain domestic policy options. This article illustrates these constraints through an evaluation of the potential effects of current WTO law and jurisprudence on the implementation of a single-payer national health insurance system in the United States, proposed incremental national and state health system reforms, the privatization of Medicare, and other prominent health system issues. The author concludes with some recommendations to the U.S. Trade Representative to suspend existing liberalization commitments in the health sector and to interpret current and future international trade treaties in a manner consistent with civilized notions of health care as a universal human right.

Dolly and Alice

PubMed Central

Burk, Dan L.

2015-01-01

The opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, In re Roslin Institute, rejecting patent claims to mammals cloned from somatic cells, was rendered about a month before the United States Supreme Court's decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International. The Alice opinion explicitly sets out the standard for determining whether an invention falls within statutory patentable subject matter. Thus one is thus left to wonder what the Roslin opinion might have looked like had it been decided only a few weeks later, after the Alice decision was published, with the benefit of the Supreme Court's further direction on patentable subject matter. In this essay I explore whether in hindsight the Alice standard might have dictated a different outcome in Roslin, suggesting how the two-part test articulated by the Supreme Court in Alice might apply to a ‘products of nature’ analysis for cloned mammals. Drawing on that analysis, I then use the Roslin case as a vehicle to highlight certain issues with the Supreme Court's current subject matter jurisprudence as applied to biotechnology. By juxtaposing Dolly with Alice, it becomes clear that the Supreme Court has revivified a number of dormant biotechnology patent problems in the guise of subject matter analysis. PMID:27774214

History of forensic medicine in Turkey.

PubMed

Oguz, Polat; Cem, Uysal

2009-05-01

Turkey has a short history of forensic medicine compared to the developed countries. Sultan Mahmud II established the first medical school of the Ottoman Empire named as Mekteb-i Tibbiye-i Sahane to provide health services to the army in 1839 [Gok S. Tomorrow, today and yesterday of the forensic medicine. 1st ed. Istanbul: Temel printing office; 1995]. It is also accepted as an important milestone of both medical education and forensic medicine in Turkey [Gok S and Ozen C. History and organization of forensic. 1st ed. Istanbul: Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical School Publications; 1982]. The first lecturer of forensic medicine at Mekteb-i Tibbiye-i Sahane was Dr. Charles Ambroise Bernard (C.A.). and he was also the first to perform autopsy in the history of Ottoman Empire [Gok, 1995]. Approximately 40 years after the first forensic medicine lecture in 1879, the Department of Medical Jurisprudence was established as a division of Zabita Tababet-i Adliye (Law Enforcement Office) in Istanbul [Sehsuvaroğlu and Ozen. History and development of forensic medicine in the world and in our country. Mag Istanbul Univ Med Fac 1974;36(60)]. This paper documents the first two cases of autopsies performed in Turkey with the original papers from the National Library.

Developments in stem cell research and therapeutic cloning: Islamic ethical positions, a review.

PubMed

Fadel, Hossam E

2012-03-01

Stem cell research is very promising. The use of human embryos has been confronted with objections based on ethical and religious positions. The recent production of reprogrammed adult (induced pluripotent) cells does not - in the opinion of scientists - reduce the need to continue human embryonic stem cell research. So the debate continues. Islam always encouraged scientific research, particularly research directed toward finding cures for human disease. Based on the expectation of potential benefits, Islamic teachings permit and support human embryonic stem cell research. The majority of Muslim scholars also support therapeutic cloning. This permissibility is conditional on the use of supernumerary early pre-embryos which are obtained during infertility treatment in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics. The early pre-embryos are considered in Islamic jurisprudence as worthy of respect but do not have the full sanctity offered to the embryo after implantation in the uterus and especially after ensoulment. In this paper the Islamic positions regarding human embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning are reviewed in some detail, whereas positions in other religious traditions are mentioned only briefly. The status of human embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning in different countries, including the USA and especially in Muslim countries, is discussed. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

[Ethical and legal duty of anesthesiologists regarding Jehovah's Witness patient: care protocol].

PubMed

Takaschima, Augusto Key Karazawa; Sakae, Thiago Mamôru; Takaschima, Alexandre Karazawa; Takaschima, Renata Dos Santos Teodoro; de Lima, Breno José Santiago Bezerra; Benedetti, Roberto Henrique

Jehovah's Witnesses patients refuse blood transfusions for religious reasons. Anesthesiologists must master specific legal knowledge to provide care to these patients. Understanding how the Law and the Federal Council of Medicine treat this issue is critical to know how to act in this context. The aim of this paper was to establish a treatment protocol for the Jehovah's Witness patient with emphasis on ethical and legal duty of the anesthesiologist. The article analyzes the Constitution, Criminal Code, resolutions of the Federal Council of Medicine (FCM), opinions, and jurisprudence to understand the limits of the conflict between the autonomy of will of Jehovah's Witnesses to refuse transfusion and the physician's duty to provide the transfusion. Based on this evidence, a care protocol is suggested. The FCM resolution 1021/1980, the penal code Article 135, which classifies denial of care as a crime and the Supreme Court decision on the HC 268,459/SP process imposes on the physician the obligation of blood transfusion when life is threatened. The patient's or guardian's consent is not necessary, as the autonomy of will manifestation of the Jehovah's Witness patient refusing blood transfusion for himself and relatives, even in emergencies, is no not forbidden. Copyright © 2016 Sociedade Brasileira de Anestesiologia. Publicado por Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Ethical and legal duty of anesthesiologists regarding Jehovah's Witness patient: care protocol.

PubMed

Takaschima, Augusto Key Karazawa; Sakae, Thiago Mamôru; Takaschima, Alexandre Karazawa; Takaschima, Renata Dos Santos Teodoro; Lima, Breno José Santiago Bezerra de; Benedetti, Roberto Henrique

Jehovah's Witnesses patients refuse blood transfusions for religious reasons. Anesthesiologists must master specific legal knowledge to provide care to these patients. Understanding how the Law and the Federal Council of Medicine treat this issue is critical to know how to act in this context. The aim of this paper was to establish a treatment protocol for the Jehovah's Witness patient with emphasis on ethical and legal duty of the anesthesiologist. The article analyzes the Constitution, Criminal Code, resolutions of the Federal Council of Medicine, opinions, and jurisprudence to understand the limits of the conflict between the autonomy of will of Jehovah's Witnesses to refuse transfusion and the physician's duty to provide the transfusion. Based on this evidence, a care protocol is suggested. The Federal Council of Medicine resolution 1021/1980, the penal code Article 135, which classifies denial of care as a crime and the Supreme Court decision on the HC 268,459/SP process imposes on the physician the obligation of blood transfusion when life is threatened. The patient's or guardian's consent is not necessary, as the autonomy of will manifestation of the Jehovah's Witness patient refusing blood transfusion for himself and relatives, even in emergencies, is no not forbidden. Copyright © 2016 Sociedade Brasileira de Anestesiologia. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Sex-Reassignment Rules in Shiite Jurisprudence.

PubMed

Kalbasi-Isfahani, Fahimeh; Deleer, Mohsen

2016-01-01

The "Sex-Reassignment Surgery" is a solution that besides behavioral therapy has been suggested to people suffering from gender identity disorders in recent years. In Iran, this trend has become more popular over the past years due to the inclination to reach to the goal rapidly with less effort and also the surgery has attracted many patients with the problem. Religious clerics have tried to determine the religious doctrines for this practice and as a result a group of them favor an absolute permission while others choose prohibition and some of them favor a middle path. The aim of this study was to determine the religious doctrines for Sex-Reassignment and legitimate treatment for GID. The research method was a library research based on which an investigation was done by analyzing the relevant books, articles and dissertations. Primary documents of Islamic sources (Quran and tradition) along with scientific, medical and psychological materials were used in this research. In this study, the survey shows that none of the reasons have the power to deliver a definitive and religious ruling on this issue because the validity of its reasons is related to the reality of "Sex-Reassignment". The results demonstrate that Sex-Reassignment is prohibited and it is not authorized. In case of urgency for doing the surgery, the gender of the person should not be changed.

The Likelihood of Injury Among Bias Crimes: An Analysis of General and Specific Bias Types.

PubMed

Pezzella, Frank S; Fetzer, Matthew D

2015-06-18

In 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Mathew Sheppard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Protection act and thereby extended the list of previously protected classes of victims from actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, disability and sex orientation to gender and gender identity. Over 45 states, the District of Columbia and the federal government now include hate crime statutes that increase penalties when offenders perpetrate hate crimes against protected classes of victims. Penalty enhancement statutes sanction unlawful bias conduct arguably because they result in more severe injuries relative to non-bias conduct. We contend that physical injuries vary by bias type and are not equally injurious. Data on bias crimes was analyzed from the National Incident Based Reporting System. Descriptive patterns of bias crimes were identified by offense type, bias motivation and major and minor injuries. Using Multivariate analyses, we found an escalating trend of violence against racial minorities. Moreover, relative to non-bias crimes, only anti-White and anti-lesbian bias crimes experienced our two prong "animus" criteria of disproportionate prevalence and severity of injury. However, when compared to anti-White bias, anti-Black bias crimes were more prevalent and likely to suffer serious injuries. Implications for hate crime jurisprudence are discussed. © The Author(s) 2015.

Judicial Assessment of the Credibility of Child Witnesses

PubMed Central

Bala, Nicholas; Ramakrishnan, Karuna; Lindsay, Roderick; Lee, Kang

2010-01-01

This article reports on the results of two research studies carried out by the authors that address the questions of how and how well judges assess the honesty and reliability of children’s testimony. One study tested the accuracy of judges and other professionals in assessing the honesty of children giving mock testimony. Judges performed at only slightly above chance levels, though the performance of judges was comparable to other justice system professionals, and significantly better than the performance of law students. The second study, a survey of Canadian judges about their perceptions of child witnesses, reveals that judges believe that compared to adults, children are generally more likely when testifying to make errors due to limitations of their memory or communication skills and due to the effects of suggestive questions. However, children are perceived to generally be more honest than adult witnesses. The survey also revealed that judges believe that children are often asked developmentally inappropriate questions in court, especially by defence counsel. There were no gender differences among the judges in either study. To put this research in context, the article first discusses the inherent challenges in assessing the credibility of witnesses and provides a review of the psychological literature and leading Canadian jurisprudence on the credibility and evidence of children. PMID:26566290

Incidental findings in data-intensive postgenomics science and legal liability of clinician-researchers: ready for vaccinomics?

PubMed

Zawati, Ma'n H; Hendy, Matthew; Joly, Yann

2011-09-01

Vaccinomics encompasses a host of multiomics approaches to characterize variability in host-environment (including pathogens) interactions, with a view to a more directed or personalized use of vaccine-based health interventions. Although vaccinomics has the potential to reduce adverse effects and increase efficacy of vaccines, the use of high-throughput, data-intensive technologies may also lead to unanticipated discoveries beyond the initial aims of a vaccinomics study--discoveries that could be highly significant to the health of the research participants. How do clinician-researchers faced with such information have to act? What are the attendant legal duties in such circumstances and how do they differ from the duties of non-clinician researchers? Together with a critical analysis of the international laws and policies framing researchers' duties with regard to incidental findings, this article also draws from Quebec's civil law--with its rich jurisprudence on clinician and researcher liability--as a case study to evaluate the potential legal implications associated with vaccinomics investigations. Given previous lessons learned from other data-intensive sciences, the education of clinician-researchers with regard to their roles, limitations, and legal obligations remains an important strategy to prevent potential legal complications and civil liability in vaccinomics research in the postgenomics era.

Excavating treasure from the amber of the prior art: why the public benefit doctrine is ill-suited to the pharmaceutical sciences.

PubMed

Hess, Robert Alan

2011-01-01

This paper explores incongruities between patents and regulation as applied to the pharmaceutical industry in the United States. Research, development and marketing of a new pharmaceutical agent generally requires large, high-risk investments. The time and expense of conducting clinical trials to obtain pre-market approval from the Food and Drug Administration provides an additional barrier to entry. The patent system stimulates such investment by providing a legal barrier to appropriation of these investments by free-riders and increasing the likelihood of capital return on these investments. These two barriers are intertwined. For the most part, firms only attempt to clear the regulatory barrier when patent protection is certain. As a result of the uniquely challenging economic situation presented by the regulatory barrier, a common line of reasoning in patent policy and jurisprudence, that inventions which are barred from patenting benefit the public, is flawed. To the contrary, the patent/regulatory system forever traps pharmaceutical inventions, once placed in the public domain. Pharmaceutical companies cannot afford to invest the resources needed to clear the regulatory barrier if the investment is quickly appropriated by a free-riding manufacturer. Various implications of, and solutions to, this policy artifact are explored.

The issue of delivery room infections in the Italian law. A brief comparative study with English and French jurisprudence.

PubMed

Zaami, Simona; Montanari Vergallo, Gianluca; Napoletano, Simona; Signore, Fabrizio; Marinelli, Enrico

2018-01-01

Delivery room infections are frequent, and many of them could be avoided through higher standards of care. The authors examine this issue by comparing it to English and French reality. Unlike England, in Italy and France the relationship established between health facility, physician and patient is outlined in a contract. In England, the judges' decisions converge toward a better and higher protection of the patient-the actor-and facilitate the probative task. In case of infections, including those occurring in the delivery room, three issues are evaluated: the hospital's negligent conduct, damages if any and causal nexus. Therefore, the hospital must demonstrate to have taken the appropriate asepsis measures according to current scientific knowledge concerning not only treatment, but also diagnosis, previous activities, surgery and post-surgery. In order to avoid a negative sentence, both physicians and hospital have to demonstrate their correct behavior and that the infection was caused by an unforeseeable event. The authors examine the most significant rulings by the Courts and the Supreme Court. They show that hospitals can avoid being accused of negligence and recklessness only if they can demonstrate to have implemented all the preventive measures provided for in the guidelines or protocols.

Implications of the law on video recording in clinical practice.

PubMed

Henken, Kirsten R; Jansen, Frank Willem; Klein, Jan; Stassen, Laurents P S; Dankelman, Jenny; van den Dobbelsteen, John J

2012-10-01

Technological developments allow for a variety of applications of video recording in health care, including endoscopic procedures. Although the value of video registration is recognized, medicolegal concerns regarding the privacy of patients and professionals are growing. A clear understanding of the legal framework is lacking. Therefore, this research aims to provide insight into the juridical position of patients and professionals regarding video recording in health care practice. Jurisprudence was searched to exemplify legislation on video recording in health care. In addition, legislation was translated for different applications of video in health care found in the literature. Three principles in Western law are relevant for video recording in health care practice: (1) regulations on privacy regarding personal data, which apply to the gathering and processing of video data in health care settings; (2) the patient record, in which video data can be stored; and (3) professional secrecy, which protects the privacy of patients including video data. Practical implementation of these principles in video recording in health care does not exist. Practical regulations on video recording in health care for different specifically defined purposes are needed. Innovations in video capture technology that enable video data to be made anonymous automatically can contribute to protection for the privacy of all the people involved.

Responding to violence against women: social science contributions to legal solutions.

PubMed

Portwood, Sharon G; Heany, Julia Finkel

2007-01-01

Violence against women represents a serious problem in America. Not only does intimate partner violence represent a significant threat to women, but it also counts among its victims, children living in the violent household. By its very nature, intimate partner or domestic violence may be approached as either a legal or a social problem. However, there is a shortage of legal approaches that have been informed by sound social science research. One promising framework for developing such integrated responses to intimate partner violence is therapeutic jurisprudence, which encourages legal professionals to work closely with social scientists to develop system responses based on empirical data. Such an approach contrasts sharply with the current practice of developing law based on assumptions, which frequently reflect traditional paternalistic and sexist attitudes toward women. This paper begins by examining the current theories and scientific knowledge on domestic violence with particular emphasis on the supporting data. A theoretical framework for conceptualizing domestic violence characterized as patriarchal terrorism as distinct from common couple violence is examined and offered as a means of explaining inconsistencies in research findings. Following a review of current legal responses to domestic violence, the paper concludes by outlining alternative strategies and recommendations for future efforts that are supported by current theory and research.

Perspective: Innocence and due diligence: managing unfounded allegations of scientific misconduct.

PubMed

Goldenring, James R

2010-03-01

While the incidence of fraud in science is well documented, issues related to the establishment of innocence in cases of fallacious allegations remain unaddressed. In this article, the author uses his own experience to examine issues that arise when investigators are falsely accused of scientific fraud. Investigators must understand the processes in place to protect themselves against false accusations. The present system takes a position of guilty until proven innocent, a concept that is antithetical to American principles of jurisprudence. Yet this stance is acceptable as a requirement for membership in the scientific community, more reflective of the rules within a guild organization. The necessity for proof of innocence by members of the scientific community carries obligations that transcend normal legal assumptions. Scientists must safeguard their reputations by organizing and maintaining all original image files and data relevant to publications and grant proposals. Investigators must be able to provide clear documentation rapidly whenever concerns are raised during the review process. Moreover, peer-reviewed journals must be diligent not only in the identification of fraud but also in providing rapid due process for adjudication of allegations. The success of the scientific guild rules of conduct lies in the practice of due diligence by both scientists and journal editors in questions of scientific misconduct.

Perceived parental security profiles in African American adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system.

PubMed

Andretta, James R; Ramirez, Aaron M; Barnes, Michael E; Odom, Terri; Roberson-Adams, Shelia; Woodland, Malcolm H

2015-12-01

Many researchers have shown the importance of parent attachment in childhood and adolescence. The present study extends the attachment literature to African Americans involved in the juvenile justice system (N = 213), and provides an initial inquiry using person-oriented methods. The average age was 16.17 years (SD = 1.44), and the sample was predominantly male (71%). Results of a confirmatory factor analysis of Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment-Short Form (IPPA-S) scores supported a 3-factor model: (a) Communication, (b) Trust, and (c) Alienation. Model-based clustering was applied to IPPA-S scores, and results pointed to 4 perceived parental security profiles: high security, moderately high security, moderately low security, and low security. In keeping with our hypotheses, IPPA-S profiles were associated with prosocial behaviors, depression, anxiety, and oppositional defiance. Contrary to hypotheses, IPPA-S profiles were not associated with perspective taking, emotional concern, or behaviors characteristic of a conduct disorder. Results also showed that gender, age, family member with whom the participant resides, charge severity, and offense history did not have an effect on IPPA-S clustering. Implications for therapeutic jurisprudence in African Americans involved with the juvenile justice system are provided. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Commercial host (dram shop) liability: current status and trends.

PubMed

Mosher, James F; Cohen, Elena N; Jernigan, David H

2013-09-01

Commercial host liability (CHL, also called dram shop liability) holds alcohol retailers liable for alcohol-attributable harm caused by serving alcohol, illegally, to a patron who is already intoxicated (adult liability) or underage (underage liability). The Community Preventive Services Task Force, based on a systematic research literature review, concluded that CHL is an effective strategy for reducing excessive alcohol consumption. The current article describes the key components of CHL, its grounding in American jurisprudence, its adoption in the 50 states, and changes since 1989, when a similar assessment of these policies was conducted. The current paper focuses on three legislatively enacted restrictions: (1) increased evidentiary requirements; (2) limitations on damage awards; and (3) limitations on who may be sued. Data were collected in 2011 and analyzed in 2012 and 2013. There has been substantial erosion of CHL during the past 2 decades. Fewer states recognized CHL in 2011 than in 1989, and more statutory restrictions were imposed during the study period among states that did recognize CHL; states are more likely to recognize underage than adult liability; and six states recognized a Responsible Beverage Services Practices affirmative defense in both 1989 and 2011. Implications of these findings for public health practitioners are discussed. Copyright © 2013 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. All rights reserved.

Sex crime legislation: Proactive and anti-therapeutic effects.

PubMed

Diesen, Christian; Diesen, Eva F

2010-01-01

Therapeutic jurisprudence may have its major role within law practice, but analysis of the law from a therapeutic perspective is a task that should not be neglected; how a piece of legislation is designed and formulated certainly influences the therapeutic outcome of a legal process. This article uses sex legislation as an example to demonstrate how the old rape law based on coercion has anti-therapeutic effects on rape victims. If the law requires resistance, it implies that a woman is sexually available until she resists physically, resulting in an attitude that a woman reporting rape without injuries should be mistrusted. This mistrust of the victim and the victim's attendant feelings of self-blame aggravate the victim's trauma. On the other hand, a modern rape law based on lack of consent gives the signal that a woman is not available until she has given her consent, resulting in a different starting position for the investigation. Since the will of the victim must be respected, the victim herself must be respected in the legal process. Furthermore, being able to tell one's story in a respectful atmosphere can be more important for the well-being of the victim than the outcome of the reported case. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gender differences in salary and practice ownership expectations of matriculating veterinary students.

PubMed

Bristol, David G

2011-08-01

To examine gender differences in initial and long-term salary and practice ownership expectations among first-year veterinary students. Survey. First-year veterinary students at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine during 2000 through 2003 and 2005 through 2009. A 1-page survey was distributed to students during orientation exercises or on the first day of a first-year course on ethics and jurisprudence. Students were asked to indicate their expected salary at graduation and in 5-year increments after graduation and to indicate whether they expected to own a practice after graduation. Responses were obtained from 567 female and 120 male students. There was no significant difference in initial salary expectations between male and female students. However, men had higher expectations for salary increases over the course of their career, so that expected salary was significantly higher for men than for women 5 years after graduation and beyond. A significantly greater percentage of men (69/93 [74.2%]) than women (242/499 [48.5%]) indicated they expected to own a practice. Although male and female veterinary students had similar expectations with regard to initial salaries, the male students had higher long-term salary expectations and were more likely to indicate an expectation to become a practice owner. Differences in expectations may lead to differences in behavior when those expectations are or are not met.

Aesthetic surgery and religion: Islamic law perspective.

PubMed

Atiyeh, Bishara S; Kadry, Mohamed; Hayek, Shady N; Moucharafieh, Ramzi S; Musharafieh, Ramzi S

2008-01-01

Plastic surgeons are called upon to perform aesthetic surgery on patients of every gender, race, lifestyle, and religion. Currently, it may seem natural that cosmetic surgery should be perceived as permissible, and in our modern liberal age, it seems strange to attempt justifying certain surgical acts in the light of a particular cultural or religious tradition. Yet every day, cruel realities demonstrate that although the foremost intention of any scripture or tradition has been mainly to promote religious and moral values, most religions, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, invariably affect human behavior and attitude deeply, dictating some rigid positions regarding critical health issues. A Web search was conducted, and the literature was reviewed using the Medline search tool. Islamic law closely regulates and governs the life of every Muslim. Bioethical deliberation is inseparable from the religion itself, which emphasizes continuities between body and mind, between material and spiritual realms, and between ethics and jurisprudence. The rule in Islam is that individuals should be satisfied with the way Allah has created them. Islam welcomes, however, the practice of plastic surgery as long as it is done for the benefit of patients. Even if it clearly considers "changing the creation of Allah" as unlawful, Islamic law is ambiguous regarding cosmetic surgery. Its objection to cosmetic surgery is not absolute. It is rather an objection to exaggeration and extremism. It has been mentioned that "Allah is beautiful and loves beauty."

[Leprosy--a stigma in the 21st century].

PubMed

Falus, Orsolya

2011-02-13

For the initiation of the French journalist Raoul Follereau in 1954 the UNO inaugurated the Leprosy Day (Martyr's Day) that is celebrated on the last Sunday of January every year. Although the bacterium that causes leprosy was isolated by the Norwegian scientist Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen in 1873 and from 1982 this disease can be cured with a special pharmaceutical complex, still 219.826 new leprous are detected on Earth every year, according to the data published in August, 2010 by WHO-experts. Ancient Chinese and Hindu source-strings from 600 B. C. are referring to leprosy, however, the disease was imported by the army of Alexander the Great from India around 327-326 B. C. Even the Old and the New Testament from the Holy Bible are mentioning leprosy in several details. During the Middle Ages the Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem, established in the Holy Land in 72 A. D., did pioneer work in nursing leprous. In the process of time the medical attendance concerning leprous was organized in special hospitals called "leprosoriums" built on river-banks. Special office and even services were organized for the treatment and isolation of the people infected. Although medical science has prevailed against leprosy, and almost simultaneously even jurisprudence defended the patients' rights via legislation, still mankind can regrettably not get rid of this disease that stigmatizes seriously.

In defense of free will: Neuroscience and criminal responsibility.

PubMed

Nestor, Paul G

2018-04-20

Is neuroscience the death of free will and if so, does this mean the imminent demise of the psycho-legal practices related to insanity and criminal responsibility? For many scholars of neuro-jurisprudence, recent advances in brain sciences suggesting that the perception of free will is merely illusory, an epiphenomenon of unconscious brain activity, do indeed undermine our traditional understandings of moral and legal responsibility. In this paper, however, we reject this radical claim and argue that neuroscientific evidence can indeed reveal how free will actually works and how its underlying neural and perceptual machinery gives rise to our sense of responsibility for our actions. First, the experience of free will is recast in terms of neuroscientific studies of agency and willed action. Second, evidence is presented of a neural network model linking agency to widely-distributed brain areas encompassing frontal motor and parietal monitoring sites. We then apply these findings to criminal responsibility practices by demonstrating (a) how the experience of intentionality and agency is generated by specific interactions of this discrete frontal-parietal network, (b) how mental disease/defect may compromise this network, and (c) how such pathologies may lead to disturbances in the sense of agency that often are central to the phenomenological experience of psychosis. The paper concludes by examining criminal responsibility practices through the lens of cultural evolution of fairness and cooperation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Consequences of the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court on the fighting dog problem].

PubMed

Hülsenbusch, M

2005-03-01

The Federal Constitutional Court decided with its "Dangerous dog-judgment" about the constitutional complaint of 53 dog breeders on the federal act combating dangerous dogs. This judgment was a so-called Pyrrhic Victory for the appellants. The Court declared the legislative competence of the federal level in this issue for null and void. But the statutory prohibition for breeding Pitbull-Terrier-, American Staffordshire-Terrier-, Staffordshire-Bullterrier-, Bullterrier-races and cross breeding out of this dogs will be governed in police laws by the Laender finally. The Standing Conference of the Ministers for Internal Affairs declared an appropriate recommendation. The use of the category "race" was refused by experts in discussions as completely wrong and not acceptable. But the Federal Constitutional Court reasons that the legislator can use the category "race" within his scope of evaluation and prognostication in accordance with the Constitution for the ban of import of dangerous dogs. The Court demands--because of the weak data background - that the legislator monitors the legislation, to adjust it according to current developments. The Constitutional Court creates with the judgment "dangerous dogs" legal certainty. The jurisprudence of the administrative courts of the Laender and of the Federal Administrative Court based on the category "race" was approved as well as the police laws of the Laender dealing with dangerous dogs.

Legal considerations in the management of cleft lip and palate.

PubMed

Berbert-Campos, Cláudia

2007-03-01

To inform professionals providing care to individuals with cleft lip and palate on the legal aspects and organizations available to protect individuals with this alteration, and to advocate that cleft lip and palate should be considered a handicap, even though it is provisional and may be rehabilitated, to assure afflicted individuals basic rights and complete personal, social, and economic welfare. Literature review on the issue, including assessment of national and international laws, doctrines, and jurisprudences; conceptual analysis of the word "handicapped" in dictionaries. Analysis included the federal constitutions of Brazil, France, Argentina, Spain, Cuba, Italy, China, Portugal, Japan, Great Britain, and Colombia, regarding the protection of handicapped people. Constitutional protection of handicapped people is a recent issue that has been addressed only in the last few decades in some countries such as Brazil, Italy, Spain, China, and Portugal. The Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988 addresses the protection of handicapped people to assure them access to social and individual rights, freedom, security, welfare, development, equality, and justice as supreme values of a fraternal, pluralist, and prejudice-free society. Individuals with cleft lip and palate should be included in national policies for integration of handicapped people, in agreement with programs of human rights, establishing a collaborative action between state and society. This would assure their inclusion in the socioeconomic and cultural context and equal opportunities in society, without privileges or paternalism.

Country watch. Brazil.

PubMed

Turra, M D

1994-01-01

Persons who are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or who suffer from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) often have their civil rights violated in Brazil. To remedy this, the Candido Mendes College in Rio de Janeiro introduced a voluntary course, "AIDS - Legal Approaches", into its law curriculum. Incentive was provided by the college's Model Law Office (MLO), where students learn to defend the rights of people in need. Class size is about 25; law professors use recent magazine and newspaper articles, and documentation on lawsuits concerning persons with HIV to teach the class. Course topics include relevant civil law (suits against blood banks), contract law (suits against private health insurance companies which refuse to cover treatment expenses related to HIV or AIDS), family law, inheritance law, labor law (unjust dismissal of persons with HIV), criminal law (intentional transmission of AIDS), violations of basic human rights, and comparative jurisprudence and constitutional law (a comparison of Brazilian law in this area to the laws of other countries). Students, during their field practice periods at the MLO, provide legal assistance to persons with HIV. Approximately 150 cases have been handled, often with positive outcomes, to date. Clients hear about the program via television, radio, and newspapers. Materials and information about lawsuits handled by the MLO are available to other colleges and universities with the hope of stimulating the formation of similar programs elsewhere.

Sex workers, unite! (Litigating for sex workers' freedom of association in Russia).

PubMed

Arps, F S E Freddie; Golichenko, Mikhail

2014-12-11

The existing legal framework in Russia makes sex work and related activities punishable offenses, leaving sex workers stigmatized, vulnerable to violence, and disproportionally affected by HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. In 2013, the Ministry of Justice, supported by the courts, refused registration and official recognition to the first all-Russia association of sex workers, referring to the fact that sex work is under administrative and criminal punitive bans and therefore the right of association for sex workers is unjustified. In light of international human rights standards, in particular the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, we examine in this paper whether the overall punitive legal ban on sex work in Russia is discriminatory. The government's positive obligations concerning discrimination against sex workers whose activities are consensual and between adults, and whose working conditions leave them among society's most vulnerable, should outweigh their punitive laws and policies around sex work. The scope of legal criminalization is narrow: it should apply only in exceptional cases where it is clearly justified. Copyright © 2014 Arps and Golichenko. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

[Uterine subrogation: medical and legal aspects of the first legally supported case in Argentina].

PubMed

Urquiza, M Fernanda; Carretero, Inés; Quaini, Fabiana Marcela; Inciarte, Florencia; Pasqualini, R Agustín; Pasqualini, R Sergio

2014-01-01

A woman aged 38 was referred to this center for surrogacy treatment, after subtotal ablation of her uterus due to a severe postpartum hemorrhage. Her hormonal profiles and ovarian structure were normal. The husband proved fertile and semen analysis was normal. The carrier, a woman 39 years old, fertile with two children of her own, and a long bonding friendship with the patient. After hormonal stimulation with gonadotropins and GnRH antagonist, six mature oocytes were obtained. These originated four embryos after in vitro fertilization, three of which were transferred to the carrier, achieving a singleton pregnancy which led to the birth of a normal child, now more than a year old. A lawsuit was filed after birth requesting the baby be registered with the biological parents name. The judge granted the request based on evidence and testimonies provided, international jurisprudence history and specification in Article 19 of the Argentine Constitution: "No inhabitant of the Nation shall be obliged to do what the law does not demand .nor be deprived of what it does not prohibit". This is an almost ideal example of the proceedings in a case of subrogation. However, we must always bear in mind the fact that in our country there is as yet no regulatory framework for these treatments, therefore there is a high probability of conflict.

Ignoring the data and endangering children: why the mature minor standard for medical decision making must be abandoned.

PubMed

Cherry, Mark J

2013-06-01

In Roper v. Simmons (2005) the United States Supreme Court announced a paradigm shift in jurisprudence. Drawing specifically on mounting scientific evidence that adolescents are qualitatively different from adults in their decision-making capacities, the Supreme Court recognized that adolescents are not adults in all but age. The Court concluded that the overwhelming weight of the psychological and neurophysiological data regarding brain maturation supports the conclusion that adolescents are qualitatively different types of agents than adult persons. The Supreme Court further solidified its position regarding adolescents as less than fully mature and responsible decisionmakers in Graham v. Florida (2010) and Miller v. Alabama (2012). In each case, the Court concluded that the scientific evidence does not support the conclusion that children under 18 years of age possess adult capacities for personal agency, rationality, and mature choice. This study explores the implications of the Supreme Court decisions in Roper v. Simmons, Graham v. Florida, and Miller v. Alabama for the "mature minor" standard for medical decision making. It argues that the Supreme Court's holdings in Roper, Graham, and Miller require no less than a radical reassessment of how healthcare institutions, courts of law, and public policy are obliged to regard minors as medical decisionmakers. The "mature minor" standard for medical decision making must be abandoned.

Sex-Reassignment Rules in Shiite Jurisprudence

PubMed Central

Kalbasi-Isfahani, Fahimeh; Deleer, Mohsen

2016-01-01

Background: The “Sex-Reassignment Surgery” is a solution that besides behavioral therapy has been suggested to people suffering from gender identity disorders in recent years. In Iran, this trend has become more popular over the past years due to the inclination to reach to the goal rapidly with less effort and also the surgery has attracted many patients with the problem. Religious clerics have tried to determine the religious doctrines for this practice and as a result a group of them favor an absolute permission while others choose prohibition and some of them favor a middle path. The aim of this study was to determine the religious doctrines for Sex-Reassignment and legitimate treatment for GID. Methods: The research method was a library research based on which an investigation was done by analyzing the relevant books, articles and dissertations. Primary documents of Islamic sources (Quran and tradition) along with scientific, medical and psychological materials were used in this research. Results: In this study, the survey shows that none of the reasons have the power to deliver a definitive and religious ruling on this issue because the validity of its reasons is related to the reality of “Sex-Reassignment”. Conclusion: The results demonstrate that Sex-Reassignment is prohibited and it is not authorized. In case of urgency for doing the surgery, the gender of the person should not be changed. PMID:27478771

Legally invisible: stewardship for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health

PubMed Central

Howse, Genevieve

2015-01-01

Abstract Objectives: The need to improve access to good health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has been the subject of policy debate for decades, but progress is hampered by complex policy and administrative arrangements and lack of clarity about the responsibilities of governments. This study aimed to identify the current legal basis of those responsibilities and define options available to Australian governments to enact enduring responsibility for Aboriginal health care. Methods: This study used a framework for public health law research and conducted a mapping study to examine the current legal underpinnings for stewardship and governance for Aboriginal health and health care. More than 200 pieces of health legislation were analysed in the context of the common and statutory law and health policy goals. Results: Very little specific recognition of the needs of Aboriginal people was found, and nothing that creates responsibility for stewardship and governance. The continuing absence of a legislative framework to address and protect Aboriginal health can be traced back to the founding doctrine of terra nullius (unoccupied land). Conclusions: We considered the results applying both a human rights perspective and the perspective of therapeutic jurisprudence. We suggest that national law for health stewardship would provide a strong foundation for progress, and should itself be based on recognition of Australia's First Peoples in the Australian Constitution, as is currently proposed. PMID:25903648

Do not resuscitate, brain death, and organ transplantation: Islamic perspective

PubMed Central

Chamsi-Pasha, Hassan; Albar, Mohammed Ali

2017-01-01

Muslim patients and families are often reluctant to discuss and accept fatal diagnoses and prognoses. In many instances, aggressive therapy is requested by a patient's family, prolonging the life of the patient at all costs. Islamic law permits the withdrawal of futile treatment, including life support, from terminally ill patients allowing death to take its natural course. “Do not resuscitate” is permitted in Islamic law in certain situations. Debate continues about the certainty of brain death criteria within Islamic scholars. Although brain death is accepted as true death by the majority of Muslim scholars and medical organizations, the consensus in the Muslim world is not unanimous, and some scholars still accept death only by cardiopulmonary criteria. Organ transplantation has been accepted in Islamic countries (with some resistance from some jurists). Many fatwas (decrees) of Islamic Jurisprudence Councils have been issued and allowed organs to be donated from living competent adult donor; and from deceased (cadavers), provided that they have agreed to donate or their families have agreed to donate after their death (usually these are brain-dead cases). A clear and well-defined policy from the ministry of health regarding do not resuscitate, brain death, and other end-of-life issues is urgently needed for all hospitals and health providers in most (if not all) Muslim and Arab countries. PMID:28469984

[Differences in psychiatric expertise of responsibility: Assessment and initial hypotheses through a review of literature].

PubMed

Guivarch, J; Piercecchi-Marti, M-D; Glezer, D; Chabannes, J-M

2015-06-01

Forensic psychiatric assessment regarding liability ensures a balance between justice and psychiatry. In France, criminal assessment is not contradictory. The psychiatric expert is commissioned by judges to determine whether or not the accused has a mental disorder and specify whether it affects discernment and control of actions at the time of offense. Its mission focuses on the mental element required to constitute an offense, and is structured around Article 122-1 of the Criminal Code. This article, composed of two paragraphs, distinguishes the framework of the abolition of discernment — a cause of non-imputability and therefore of a statement of lack of criminal responsibility due to mental disorder — and the framework of the alteration of discernment. Nowadays expertise seems to meet discomfort, with criticism focusing on possible differences among psychiatric experts, without specific studies having been conducted to confirm it. Our objective was to identify the main points of disagreement between psychiatric experts and to propose explicative hypotheses. For this, we carried out a literature review on PubMed, Science Direct and Cairn, and studied the report of the 2007 public hearing on forensic psychiatric assessment with contributions from different authors. The keywords were: forensic psychiatry, psychiatric court report, psychiatric expertise, differences among experts, legal responsibility, and discernment. We defined differences as disagreements between experts, or as a mismatch in conclusions and approaches of experts. The differences among experts concerned mainly forensic interpretation, i.e. the discussion of the relationship between pathology and offense, particularly in contexts that involve a larger forensic discussion, including interruption of medication, use of drugs, association with antisocial personality, premeditation, denial of facts, especially when the accused suffers from a mental illness (especially schizophrenia). For a finding of abolition of discernment, an expert must consider two requirements, one temporal (the mental disease must be active during offense) and the other causal that involves seeking a direct and exclusive relationship between the offence and the mental state, according to expert jurisprudence. Some experts do not comply with these two requirements or this jurisprudence, whence differences. There were also diagnostic differences and disputes relating to the concept of "alteration of discernment". Disagreements appeared to be related primarily to personal ideologies or different schools of thought that influenced interpretations and conclusions of experts, e.g. accountability as a therapeutic response for the psychotic person. Then, the lack of clarity of expert mission regarding necessary causal relationship — between any disease and crime — to demonstrate to conclude an abolition of discernment, could also contribute to differences. Moreover, time available to achieve the mission is too short and the expert would not devote enough time to an expert examination, which could lead to less good expertise and differences; especially as observed clinical examination in expertise is sometimes difficult, misleading, due to pathological reticence of accused mentally ill but also sometimes due to possible simulations. Finally, the low quality of some expert reports — due in part to the less well-trained experts, but also the particular conditions of achievement of expertise, especially in prisons — were mentioned by some authors as causes of differences. It appears from this review of literature that differences mainly concern forensic interpretation and are mainly explained by ideologies. This synthesis is a preliminary work prior to a study among psychiatric experts. Copyright © 2015 L’Encéphale, Paris. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Using litigation to defend women prosecuted for abortion in Mexico: challenging state laws and the implications of recent court judgments.

PubMed

Paine, Jennifer; Noriega, Regina Tamés; Puga, Alma Luz Beltrán Y

2014-11-01

While women in Mexico City can access free, safe and legal abortion during the first trimester, women in other Mexican states face many barriers. To complicate matters, between 2008 and 2009, 16 state constitutions were amended to protect life from conception. While these reforms do not annul existing legal abortion indications, they have created additional obstacles for women. Health providers increasingly report women who seek life-saving care for complications such as haemorrhage to the police, and some cases eventually end up in court. The Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE) has successfully litigated such cases in state courts, with positive outcomes. However, state courts have mainly focused on procedural issues. The Mexican Supreme Court ruling supporting Mexico City's law has had a positive effect, but a stronger stance is needed. This paper discusses the constitutional framework and jurisprudence regarding abortion in Mexico, and the recent Costa Rica decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. We assert that Mexican states must guarantee women's access to abortion on the legal grounds established in law. We continue to support litigation at the state level to oblige courts to exonerate women prosecuted for illegal abortion. Advocacy should, of course, also address the legislative and executive branches, while working simultaneously to set legal precedents on abortion. Copyright © 2014 Reproductive Health Matters. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Movement and counter-movement: a history of abortion law reform and the backlash in Colombia 2006-2014.

PubMed

Ruibal, Alba

2014-11-01

In 2006, the Constitutional Court of Colombia issued Decision C-355/2006, which liberalized the country's abortion law. The reform was groundbreaking in its argumentation, being one of the first judicial decisions in the world to uphold abortion rights on equality grounds, and the first by a constitutional court to rule on the constitutionality of abortion within a human rights framework. It was also the first of a series of reforms that would liberalize the abortion regulation in four other Latin American countries. The Colombian case is also notable for the process of strategic litigation carried out by feminist organizations after the Court's decision, in order to ensure its implementation and counter the opposition from conservative actors working in State institutions, as well as for the active role played by the Court in that process. Based on fieldwork carried out in Colombia in 2013, this article analyzes the process of progressive implementation and reactionary backlash after Decision C-355/2006, with an emphasis on strategic litigation by the feminist movement and subsequent decisions by the Constitutional Court, which consolidated its jurisprudence in the field of abortion rights. It highlights the role of both feminists and of conservative activists within State institutions as opposing social movements, and the dynamics of political and legal mobilization and counter-mobilization in that process. Copyright © 2014 Reproductive Health Matters. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A normality bias in legal decision making.

PubMed

Prentice, Robert A; Koehler, Jonathan J

2003-03-01

It is important to understand how legal fact finders determine causation and assign blame. However, this process is poorly understood. Among the psychological factors that affect decision makers are an omission bias (a tendency to blame actions more than inactions [omissions] for bad results), and a normality bias (a tendency to react more strongly to bad outcomes that spring from abnormal rather than normal circumstances). The omission and normality biases often reinforce one another when inaction preserves the normal state and when action creates an abnormal state. But what happens when these biases push in opposite directions as they would when inaction promotes an abnormal state or when action promotes a normal state? Which bias exerts the stronger influence on the judgments and behaviors of legal decision makers? The authors address this issue in two controlled experiments. One experiment involves medical malpractice and the other involves stockbroker negligence. They find that jurors pay much more attention to the normality of conditions than to whether those conditions arose through acts or omissions. Defendants who followed a nontraditional medical treatment regime or who chose a nontraditional stock portfolio received more blame and more punishment for bad outcomes than did defendants who obtained equally poor results after recommending a traditional medical regime or a traditional stock portfolio. Whether these recommendations entailed an action or an omission was essentially irrelevant. The Article concludes with a discussion of the implications of a robust normality bias for American jurisprudence.

Cultural, religious and socio-economic factors affecting sex education in Turkey.

PubMed

Koral, S

1991-05-01

Although professional pressure groups attempted to address the need for formal sex education in the 1970's, the Family Planning Association of Turkey (FPAT) has successfully introduced sex education subjects into school programs. It has also been endorsed as a major resource by the Ministry of Health; however, the Ministry of Education has been backsliding recently on sex education and in general has not generated zealous supporters of sex education. Different attitudes and practices prevail. Sex education is not usually discussed in the home, but there is support for sex education in schools. Its importance is recognized. Turkish society tends to be conservative particularly among middle socioeconomic stratum. Upper classes tend to be more liberal, and lower classes perceive sexuality as the normal way of life. The term sex is associated with eroticism, sex education as sex techniques; so sexuality must fall within the confines of health education. Within the Muslim faith, views on sex support discussion of sexual issues with couples, for example, or among students of Islamic jurisprudence. According to Quaranic teachings, women have a right to a sex life, including divorce options if sexuality is not fulfilled. Misinterpretations of Quaranic teachings have hindered the effort to plan an appropriate sex education program. Islamic values are liberal in their support for family planning. The FPAT's objective is to change the image of sex education and eliminate the fear that established values will be challenged by sex education.

Conforming to the rule of law: when person and human being finally mean the same thing in Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence.

PubMed

Lugosi, Charles I

The Fourteenth Amendment was intended to protect people from discrimination and harm from other people. Racism is not the only thing people need protection from. As a constitutional principle, the Fourteenth Amendment is not confined to its historical origin and purpose, but is available now to protect all human beings, including all unborn human beings. The Supreme Court can define "person" to include all human beings, born and unborn. It simply chooses not to do so. Science, history and tradition establish that unborn humans are, from the time of conception, both persons and human beings, thus strongly supporting an interpretation that the unborn meet the definition of "person" under the Fourteenth Amendment. The legal test used to extend constitutional personhood to corporations, which are artificial "persons" under the law, is more than met by the unborn, demonstrating that the unborn deserve the status of constitutional personhood. There can be no "rule of law" if the Constitution continues to be interpreted to perpetuate a discriminatory legal system of separate and unequal for unborn human beings. Relying on the reasoning of the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court may overrule Roe v. Wade solely on the grounds of equal protection. Such a result would not return the matter of abortion to the states. The Fourteenth Amendment, properly interpreted, would thereafter prohibit abortion in every state.

Differences in the eyes of the beholders: The roles of subjective and objective judgments in sexual harassment claims.

PubMed

Kimble, Katherine M K; Farnum, Katlyn S; Wiener, Richard L; Allen, Jill; Nuss, Gwenith D; Gervais, Sarah J

2016-06-01

In 2 studies, we found support for current sexual harassment jurisprudence. Currently, the courts use a 2-prong test to determine the viability of a sexual harassment claim: that the adverse treatment is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter conditions of employment based on a protected class from the perspective of the individual complainant (subjective prong) and from the perspective of a reasonable person (objective prong). In Experiment 1, trained male undergraduate research assistants administered sequential objectifying gazes and comments to undergraduate female research participants. We found that the pervasive objectification delivered by multiple men (compared with 1 man) did not elicit more negative emotion or harm the experiencers' task performance, although it did lead them to make increased judgments of sexual harassment. In Experiment 2, observers (who viewed a recording of an experiencer's interactions with the male research assistants) and predictors (who read a protocol describing the facts of the interaction) anticipated the female targets would experience negative emotions, show impaired performance, as well as find more evidence in the interaction of sexual harassment. Observers' judgments mirrored those of the experiencers' while predictors' judgments demonstrated affective forecasting errors. Predictors were more likely to anticipate more negative emotion, worse performance, and greater likelihood of sexual harassment. Overall, these studies demonstrate the impact and importance of considering perceptions of sexual harassment from multiple perspectives and viewpoints. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Responding to Public Health Emergencies on Tribal Lands: Jurisdictional Challenges and Practical Solutions.

PubMed

Barnard, Justin B

2015-01-01

Response to public health emergencies on tribal lands poses a unique challenge for state and tribal public health officials. The complexity and intensely situation-specific nature of federal Indian jurisprudence leaves considerable question as to which government entity, state or tribal, has jurisdiction on tribal lands to undertake basic emergency measures such as closure of public spaces, quarantine, compulsory medical examination, and investigation. That jurisdictional uncertainty, coupled with cultural differences and an often troubled history of tribal-state relations, threatens to significantly impede response to infectious disease outbreaks or other public health emergencies on tribal lands. Given that tribal communities may be disproportionately impacted by public health emergencies, it is critical that tribal, state, and local governments engage with each other in coordinated planning for public health threats. This Article is offered as a catalyst for such planning efforts. The Article identifies some of the most pressing jurisdictional issues that may confront governments responding to a public health emergency on tribal lands, with the aim of highlighting the nature of the problem and the need for action. The Article goes on to examine the most promising means of addressing jurisdictional uncertainty: intergovernmental agreements. Already utilized in many areas of shared interest between tribe and state, intergovernmental agreements offer neighboring state, local, and tribal governments a vehicle for delineating roles and authorities in an emergency, and may lay the groundwork for sharing resources. The Article surveys various representative tribal public health intergovernmental agreements, and concludes with suggestions for tribes and state or local governments looking to craft their own agreements.

Rearrest and linkage to mental health services among clients of the Clark County mental health court program.

PubMed

Herinckx, Heidi A; Swart, Sandra C; Ama, Shane M; Dolezal, Cheri D; King, Steve

2005-07-01

This study examined rearrest and linkage to mental health services among 368 misdemeanants with severe and persistent mental illness who were served by the Clark County Mental Health Court (MHC). This court, established in April 2000, is based on the concepts of therapeutic jurisprudence. This study addressed the following questions about the effectiveness of the Clark County MHC: Did MHC clients receive more comprehensive mental health services? Did the MHC successfully reduce recidivism? Were there any client or program characteristics associated with recidivism? A secondary analysis of use of mental health services and jail data for the MHC clients enrolled from April 2000 through April 2003 was conducted. The authors used a 12-month pre-post comparison design to determine whether MHC participants experienced reduced rearrest rates for new offenses, reduced probation violations, and increased mental health services 12 months postenrollment in the MHC compared with 12 months preenrollment. The overall crime rate for MHC participants was reduced 4.0 times one year postenrollment in the MHC compared with one year preenrollment. One year postenrollment, 54 percent of participants had no arrests, and probation violations were reduced by 62 percent. The most significant factor in determining the success of MHC participants was graduation status from the MHC, with graduates 3.7 times less likely to reoffend compared with nongraduates. The Clark County MHC successfully reduced rearrest rates for new criminal offenses and probation violations and provided the mental health support services to stabilize mental health consumers in the community.

[Medical ethics, a counter-weight to the logics of the Perruche decree].

PubMed

François, Irène; Moutel, Grégoire; Bertrandon, Richard; Herve, Christian

2002-07-27

FROM A CONTRACTUAL LOGIC TO A PROBABILISTIC APPROACH: Since 1936, reflections on the relationship between the physician and the patient have progressed within the context of a contractual legal concept. Its contents have been based more on jurisprudence than on the physicians' reflections with regard to their practice. Associated with this contractual logic, some confusion exists between a lesion, a medical concept, and a handicap, which is the social consequence of one's status of health. This has been reinforced by the scientific progress made in medicine, which privileges a probabilistic approach based on scientific data, rather than the uncertainty, inscribed in the dialogue and singularity of the encounter. REGARDING THE PERRUCHE DECREE: We analyzed the reports submitted to the court of cessation regarding the Perruche affair, together with the first chapter of the law concerning the rights of the patients and the quality of health system, by studying the extent to which this decision was inscribed or not in the continuity of past legal decisions, and whether the characteristics described above were present. In this decree, the predominating contractual logic is that the notion of handicap is not analyzed, and the scientific and probabilistic conception of medical practice is involved in the debate. THE NECESSITY FOR REFLECTION: Our discussion insists on the necessity of constructing a reflection on the medical presentation; society cannot accept that this be reduced to the strict respect of the elements of the contract, defined by legal decisions. It should be carefully thought out by health professionals, and in collaboration with human science.

Personhood and Moral Status of The Embryo: It's Effect on Validity of Surrogacy Contract Revocation according to Shia Jurisprudence Perspective.

PubMed

Nazari Tavakkoli, Saeid

2017-10-01

One of the most controversial issues related to the human embryo is the determination of the moment when an embryo is considered a human being and acquires a moral status. Although personhood and moral status are frequently mentioned in medical ethics, they are considered interdisciplinary as concepts that shape the debate in medical law (fiqh) since their consequences are influential in the way which the parents and other individuals behave towards the embryo. This analytical-descriptive research gathered relevant data in a literature search. After a description of the fundamentals and definitions, we subsequently analyzed juridical texts and selected one of the viewpoints that regarded the surrogacy contract revocation. The surrogacy contract is a contract based upon which two sides (infertile couple and surrogate mother) involved in making the contract are obligated to fulfill its terms. Therefore, contract revocation can be surveyed from three perspectives: mutual revocation (iqala), legal unilateral wills (khiar al-majlis, khiar al-ayb), and contractual wills (khiar al-shart). Revocation of a surrogacy contract either by the genetic parents, surrogate or the fertility clinic is allowed by Muslim jurists only when the embryo lacks personhood. Based on Islamic teachings, the termination of a surrogacy contract in and after the sixteenth week of pregnancy, when the embryo acquires a human soul (ensoulment), is not allowed. However religious thought emphasizes the moral status of the fetus before the sixteenth week and states that optional termination of the surrogacy contract is not permitted while the fetus becomes a human being. Copyright© by Royan Institute. All rights reserved.

RISKS, REASONS AND RIGHTS: THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENGLISH ABORTION LAW

PubMed Central

Scott, Rosamund

2016-01-01

Although there is no right to abort in English law but rather abortion is a crime, the lawful grounds for which are instantiated in the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990), the regulation of abortion is sometimes perceived as being fairly ‘liberal’. Accordingly, the idea that aspects of English law could be criticised under the European Convention on Human Rights, with which the UK must comply following the Human Rights Act 1998, may seem unlikely. Indeed, English law is compatible with the consensus amongst contracting states that abortion should be available on maternal health grounds. However, analysis of the UK's negative obligations under Article 8 shows that section 1(1)(a) of the Act is problematic as it operates in the first trimester. Further, given the European Court of Human Rights' emphasis on the reduced margin of appreciation once a state has legalised abortion to some degree and its jurisprudence relating to a state's positive obligations, the analysis shows that, while English law may not be problematic in relation to the lack of guidelines relating to the lawful grounds for abortion, it may well be in relation to the lack of a formal system for the review of any two doctors' decision not to grant a termination. Notwithstanding the morally serious nature of the decision to abort, the analysis overall raises questions about the need for at least some degree of abortion law reform, particularly in relation to the first trimester, towards a more autonomy-focused, though time-limited, rights-based approach. PMID:26546800

Duty to Inform and Informed Consent in Diagnostic Radiology: How Ethics and Law can Better Guide Practice.

PubMed

Doudenkova, Victoria; Bélisle Pipon, Jean-Christophe

2016-03-01

Although there is consensus on the fact that ionizing radiation used in radiological examinations can affect health, the stochastic (random) nature of risk makes it difficult to anticipate and assess specific health implications for patients. The issue of radiation protection is peculiar as any dosage received in life is cumulative, the sensitivity to radiation is highly variable from one person to another, and between 20 % and 50 % of radiological examinations appear not to be necessary. In this context, one might reasonably assume that information and patient consent would play an important role in regulating radiological practice. However, there is to date no clear consensus regarding the nature and content of-or even need for-consent by patients exposed to ionizing radiation. While law and ethics support the same principles for respecting the dignity of the person (inviolability and integrity), in the context of radiology practice, they do not provide a consistent message to guide clinical decision-making. This article analyzes the issue of healthcare professionals' duty to inform and obtain patient consent for radiological examinations. Considering that both law and ethics have as one of their aims to protect vulnerable populations, it is important that they begin to give greater attention to issues raised by the use of ionizing radiation in medicine. While the situation in Canada serves as a backdrop for a reflective analysis of the problem, the conclusions are pertinent for professional practice in other jurisdictions because the principles underlying health law and jurisprudence are fairly general.

Decision-making in a death investigation: Emotion, families and the coroner.

PubMed

Tait, Gordon; Carpenter, Belinda; Quadrelli, Carol; Barnes, Michael

2016-03-01

The role of the coroner in common law countries such as Australia, England, Canada and New Zealand is to preside over death investigations where there is uncertainty as to the manner of death, a need to identify the deceased, a death of unknown cause, or a violent or unnatural death. The vast majority of these deaths are not suspicious and thus require coroners to engage with grieving families who have been thrust into a legal process through the misfortune of a loved one's sudden or unexpected death. In this research, 10 experienced coroners discussed how they negotiated the grief and trauma evident in a death investigation. In doing so, they articulated two distinct ways in which legal officers engaged with emotions, which are also evident in the literature. The first engages the script of judicial dispassion, articulating a hierarchical relationship between reason and emotion, while the second introduces an ethic of care via the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence, and thus offers a challenge to the role of emotion in the personae of the professional judicial officer. By using Hochschild's work on the sociology of emotions, this article discusses the various ways in which coroners manage the emotion of a death investigation through emotion work. While emotional distance may be an understandable response by coroners to the grief and trauma experienced by families and directed at cleaner coronial decision-making, the article concludes that coroners may be better served by offering emotions such as sympathy, consideration and compassion directly to the family in those situations where families are struggling to accept, or are resistant to, coroners' decisions.

Responsiveness to difference: ADA accommodations in the course of an arrest.

PubMed

Levin, Robyn

2017-01-01

When the Supreme Court heard argument in City & County of San Francisco v. Sheehan in the spring of 2015, it intended to resolve a circuit split. In granting certiorari, the Court planned to clarify whether individuals with disabilities can sue police officers under the ADA if an officer fails to accommodate a disability in the course of an arrest. However, because the petitioners failed to brief the Court on that question, the portion of the case involving the ADA was dismissed as improvidently granted. Justices Scalia and Kagan were so enraged by the failure to brief on the "certworthy" question that they issued a partial dissent, refusing to issue opinions on any of the attendant issues. Nearly two years later, courts are still in tension, unable to agree on how to balance the statutory requirements for ADA compliance with the necessity of providing police the requisite leeway to keep both officers and the public safe. This Note provides an in-depth survey of existing jurisprudence, reorganizing the courts’ differing tests along clear lines. It then posits a solution: a tripartite test to be applied on a sliding scale that would require officers to afford increased accommodations to individuals with disabilities as a situation becomes more secure. Given that under the current regime individuals with untreated mental illnesses are sixteen times more likely than other citizens to be killed by police officers when stopped, a new sliding scale test would hopefully engender reforms in police departments throughout the country that could decrease the incidence of violent confrontations.

Investigation of the prevalence and causes and of legal abortion of teenage married mothers in Iran.

PubMed

Ghodrati, Fatemeh; Saadatmand, Narges; Gholamzadeh, Saeid; Akbarzadeh, Marzieh

2018-02-05

Background The therapeutic abortion law, in accordance with the fatwa issued by our Muslim jurisprudent approved by the parliament in 2005, has made major developments in dealing with cases of therapeutic abortions. Objective This study aimed at identifying the prevalence and causes of therapeutic abortion requests to the Legal Medicine Organization of Fars province, Shiraz, by pregnant teenager mothers. Methods This study was a retrospective, cross-sectional, descriptive survey. In this study, all documents related to therapeutic abortion requests from the Legal Medicine Organization of Fars province (southern Iran) from 2006 to 2013 were investigated. The total sample size included 1664, out of which 142 were teenagers. Sampling was carried out using Convenience method. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software, version 16, descriptive statistics and χ2. Results In this study, 142 mothers were under 20 years of age (8.5%). The prevalence of fetal abortion license requests was 110 (78.6%) and for maternal causes was 30 (21.4%). There was no significant statistical correlation between fetal causes in different years (p = 0.083). The most common causes of fetal abortion request were for thalassemia treatment in 78 cases (79.9%) followed by fetal malformations (20.9%); also, the most common maternal cause was thalassemia in 14 cases (51.9%) and depression in three cases (1.11%), respectively. Conclusion Our results showed that after approval of therapeutic abortion law, requests for therapeutic abortion due to fetal causes are extensively increasing. There is still a need for coordination of judicial, medical and legal authorities for prompt notification.

The Islamic Perspectives of Gender-Related Issues in the Management of Patients With Disorders of Sex Development.

PubMed

Zainuddin, Ani Amelia; Mahdy, Zaleha Abdullah

2017-02-01

In Islam, the person with somatic sex ambiguity due to a disorder of sex development (DSD), such as 46,XX congenital adrenal hyperplasia or 46,XY androgen insensitivity, is recognized as khunsa. Two types of khunsa are distinguished: wadhih (discernible) and musykil (intractable). A recent fatwa (religious edict) in Malaysia decreed that it is permissible for male-assigned patients from these two groups to have gender reassignment surgery to female following diagnosis; however, the religious authority has yet to rule on the reassignment from female to male, if requested. The different schools of law in Islam agree on some aspects of gender-related issues like the position of khunsa in prayer congregations, but differ in their opinions on others such as property inheritance and bathing rituals. For purposes of illustration, this article includes three case reports on Muslim patients with DSD in Malaysia, focusing on issues of gender assignment: (1) a patient with 46,XX CAH, assigned as female, requesting reassignment to male; (2) a patient with 46,XX CAH, assigned female, and gender dysphoric, but undecided on the gender to be; and (3) a patient with 46,XY complete gonadal dysgenesis, raised female due to her phenotype at birth, diagnosed late, at age 18 years, and content to remain female. Gender-related issues from the perspective of Islamic jurisprudence are highlighted and discussed. To ensure holistic care, health-service providers involved in the care of Muslim patients with DSDs need to be aware of the Islamic perspectives on gender-related issues and involve expert religious authorities.

Islamic logics, reproductive rationalities: family planning in northern Pakistan.

PubMed

Varley, Emma

2012-01-01

This paper explores the use of Islamic doctrine and jurisprudence by family planning organizations in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan. It examines how particular interpretations of Islam are promoted in order to encourage fertility reductions, and the ways Muslim clerics, women and their families react to this process. The paper first discusses how Pakistan's demographic crisis, as the world's sixth most populous nation, has been widely blamed on under-funding for reproductive health services and wavering political commitment to family planning. Critics have called for innovative policy and programming to counter 'excessive reproduction' by also addressing socio-cultural and religious barriers to contraceptive uptake. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research, the paper examines how family planning organizations in Gilgit-Baltistan respond to this shift by employing moderate interpretations of Islam that qualify contraceptive use as a 'rational' reproductive strategy and larger families as 'irrational'. However, the use of Islamic rhetoric to enhance women's health-seeking agency and enable fertility reductions is challenged by conservative Sunni ulema (clergy), who seek to reassert collective control over women's bodies and fertility by deploying Islamic doctrine that honors frequent childbearing. Sunnis' minority status and the losses incurred by regional Shia-Sunni conflicts have further strengthened clerics' pronatalist campaigns. The paper then analyses how Sunni women navigate the multiple reproductive rationalities espoused by 'Islamized' family planning and conservative ulema. Although Islamized family planning legitimizes contraceptive use and facilitates many women's stated desire for smaller families, it frequently positions women against the interests of family, community and conservative Islam.

Chiropractic Name techniques in Canada: a continued look at demographic trends and their impact on issues of jurisprudence

PubMed Central

Gleberzon, Brain J

2002-01-01

In a previous article, the author reported on the recommendations gathered from student projects between 1996 and 1999 investigating their preferences for including certain chiropractic Name technique systems into the curriculum at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC). These results were found to be congruent with the professional treatment technique used by Canadian chiropractors. This article reports on the data obtained during the 2000 and 2001 academic years, comparing these results to those previously gathered. In addition, because of the implementation of a new curriculum during this time period, there was unique opportunity to observe whether or not student perceptions differed between those students in the `old' curricular program, and those students in the `new' curricular program. The results gathered indicate that students in both curricular programs show an interest in learning Thompson Terminal Point, Activator Methods, Gonstead, and Active Release Therapy techniques in the core curriculum, as an elective, or during continuing educational programs provided by the college. Students continue to show less interest in learning CranioSacral Therapy, SacroOccipital Technique, Logan Basic, Applied Kinesiology and Chiropractic BioPhysics. Over time, student interest has moved away from Palmer HIO and other upper cervical techniques, and students show a declining interest in being offered instruction in either Network Spinal Analysis or Torque Release Techniques. Since these findings reflect the practice activities of Canadian chiropractors they may have implications not only towards pedagogical decision-making processes at CMCC, but they may also influence professional standards of care.

How does the World Trade Organization know? The mobilization and staging of scientific expertise in the GMO trade dispute.

PubMed

Bonneuil, Christophe; Levidow, Les

2012-02-01

The World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement procedure is a key arena for establishing global legal norms for what counts as relevant knowledge. As a high-profile case, the WTO trade dispute on GMOs mobilized scientific expertise in somewhat novel ways. Early on, the Panel put the dispute under the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement through a new legal ontology; it classified transgenes as potential pests and limited all environmental issues to the 'plant and animal health' category. The selection of scientific experts sought a multi-party consensus through a fast adversarial process, reflecting a specific legal epistemology. For the SPS framing, focusing on the defendant's regulatory procedures, the Panel staged scientific expertise in specific ways that set up how experts were questioned, the answers they would give, their specific role in the legal arena, and the way their statements would complement the Panel's findings. In these ways, the dispute settlement procedure co-produced legal and scientific expertise within the Panel's SPS framework. Moreover, the Panel operated a procedural turn in WTO jurisprudence by representing its findings as a purely legal-administrative judgement on whether the EC's regulatory procedures violated the SPS Agreement, while keeping implicit its own judgements on substantive risk issues. As this case illustrates, the WTO settlement procedure mobilizes scientific expertise for sophisticated, multiple aims: it recruits a source of credibility from the scientific arena, thus reinforcing the standard narrative of 'science-based trade discipline', while also constructing new scientific expertise for the main task--namely, challenging trade restrictions for being unduly cautious.

Unresolved legal questions in cross-border health care in Europe: liability and data protection.

PubMed

van der Molen, I N; Commers, M J

2013-11-01

Directive 2011/24/EU was designed to clarify the rights of EU citizens in evaluating, accessing and obtaining reimbursement for cross-border care. Based on three regional case studies, the authors attempted to assess the added value of the Directive in helping clarify issues in to two key areas that have been identified as barriers to cross-border care: liability and data protection. Qualitative case study employing secondary data sources including research of jurisprudence, that set up a Legal framework as a base to investigate liability and data protection in the context of cross-border projects. By means of three case studies that have tackled liability and data protection hurdles in cross-border care implementation, this article attempts to provide insight into legal certainty and uncertainty regarding cross-border care in Europe. The case studies reveal that the Directive has not resolved core uncertainties related to liability and data protection issues within cross-border health care. Some issues related to the practice of cross-border health care in Europe have been further clarified by the Directive and some direction has been given to possible solutions for issues connected to liability and data protection. Directive 2011/24/EU is clearly a transposition of existing regulations on data protection and ECJ case law, plus a set of additional, mostly, voluntary rules that might enhance regional border cooperation. Therefore, as shown in the case studies, a practical and case by case approach is still necessary in designing and providing cross-border care. © 2013 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The static evolution of the new Italian code of medical ethics.

PubMed

Montanari Vergallo, G; Busardò, F P; Zaami, S; Marinelli, E

2016-01-01

Eight years since the last revision, in May 2014 the Italian code of medical ethics has been updated. Here, the Authors examine the reform in the light of the increasing difficulties of the medical profession arising from the severity of the Italian law Courts. The most significant aspects of this new code are firstly, the patient's freedom of self-determination and secondly, risk prevention through the disclosure of errors and adverse events. However, in both areas the reform seems to be less effective if we compare the ethical codes of France, the United Kingdom and the United States. In particular, the non-taking into consideration of the said code quality standards and scientific evidence which should guide doctors in their clinical practice is to say the least questionable. Since these are the most significant changes in the new code, it seems inevitable to conclude that the 2014 edition is essentially in line with previous versions. Now more than ever it is necessary that medical ethics acknowledges that medicine, society and medical jurisprudence have changed and doctors must be given new rules in order to protect both patients' rights and dignity of the profession. The physician's right to refuse to perform treatment at odds with his own clinical beliefs cannot be the only mean to safeguard the dignity of the profession. A clear boundary must also be established between medicine and professionalism as well as the criteria in determining the scientific evidences that physicians must follow. This has not been done in the Italian code of ethics, despite all the controversy caused by the Stamina case.

Apology in the criminal justice setting: evidence for including apology as an additional component in the legal system.

PubMed

Petrucci, Carrie J

2002-01-01

The criminal justice system has reached unprecedented scope in the United States, with over 6.4 million people under some type of supervision. Remedies that have the potential to reduce this number are continually being sought. This article analyzes an innovative strategy currently being reconsidered in criminal justice: the apology. Despite a legal system that only sporadically acknowledges it, evidence for the use of apology is supported by social science research, current criminal justice theories, case law, and empirical studies. Social psychological, sociological and socio-legal studies pinpoint the elements and function of apology, what makes apologies effective, and concerns about apology if it were implemented in the criminal justice system. Theoretical evidence is examined (including restorative justice, therapeutic jurisprudence, crime, shame, and reintegration) to explore the process of apology in the criminal justice context. Attribution theory and social conduct theory are used to explain the apology process specifically for victims and offenders. A brief examination of case law reveals that though apology has no formal place in criminal law, it has surfaced recently under the federal sentencing guidelines. Finally, empirical evidence in criminal justice settings reveals that offenders want to apologize and victims desire an apology. Moreover, by directly addressing the harmful act, apology may be the link to reduced recidivism for offenders, as well as empowerment for victims. This evidence combined suggests that apology is worthy of further study as a potentially valuable addition to the criminal justice process. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[Project Shared Medical Record in Catalonia, Spain: legal framework and enforcement of rights of access, rectification, cancellation and opposition (ARCO)].

PubMed

Borrás-Pascual, Maria Josep; Busquets-Font, Josep Maria; García-Martínez, Anna; Manent-González, Martí

2010-02-01

The Constitution and especially the Constitutional Court's jurisprudence have recognized the so-called right of habeas data, providing legal protection at the highest level of personal data. Health information, falls within the scope of protection, but we see that there are peculiarities in the health and development legislation that compels us to treat such information with special characteristics. This article will review the citizen's rights to access to health information, taking into account both the protection of personal data such as regulating access to specific health information and tools that have been developed for the exercise of these rights under the "Shared Medical Record" project developed by the Department of Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia. In particular the rights that are discussed are: the right of access to information, the right of correction, the right of cancellation. The right of access to information enables anyone to know if their personal data are processed, the purpose of treatment and the available information on the origin of personal data. In addition the law also allows to know whether the data have been disclosed to a third party. The right of rectification gives -concerned in this case the patient- the right to correct any data that contain errors. The cancellation right is restricted to situations where it really is exercising a right of correction against information. Finally, the right to object is for patients to be able to oppose their health data is consulted by various health care facilities to generate them. 2010 Elsevier España S.L. All rights reserved.

Personhood and Moral Status of The Embryo: It’s Effect on Validity of Surrogacy Contract Revocation according to Shia Jurisprudence Perspective

PubMed Central

Tavakkoli, Saeid Nazari

2017-01-01

Background One of the most controversial issues related to the human embryo is the determination of the moment when an embryo is considered a human being and acquires a moral status. Although personhood and moral status are frequently mentioned in medical ethics, they are considered interdisciplinary as concepts that shape the debate in medical law (fiqh) since their consequences are influential in the way which the parents and other individuals behave towards the embryo. Materials and Methods This analytical-descriptive research gathered relevant data in a literature search. After a description of the fundamentals and definitions, we subsequently analyzed juridical texts and selected one of the viewpoints that regarded the surrogacy contract revocation. Results The surrogacy contract is a contract based upon which two sides (infertile couple and surrogate mother) involved in making the contract are obligated to fulfill its terms. Therefore, contract revocation can be surveyed from three perspectives: mutual revocation (iqala), legal unilateral wills (khiar al-majlis, khiar al-ayb), and contractual wills (khiar al-shart). Conclusion Revocation of a surrogacy contract either by the genetic parents, surrogate or the fertility clinic is allowed by Muslim jurists only when the embryo lacks personhood. Based on Islamic teachings, the termination of a surrogacy contract in and after the sixteenth week of pregnancy, when the embryo acquires a human soul (ensoulment), is not allowed. However religious thought emphasizes the moral status of the fetus before the sixteenth week and states that optional termination of the surrogacy contract is not permitted while the fetus becomes a human being. PMID:28868846

[Psychiatry and the assessment of human destructiveness: on the question of drawing the line between the "normal" concept of evil and psychiatric illnesses].

PubMed

Hinterhuber, Hartmann

2008-01-01

Every culture in this world demands that its members comply with a few basic rules: Respect for and maintenance of the health and life of others are recognised as worldwide ethical norms just as much as consideration for the economic basis of existence of others. When these are exceeded, they are punished in all social systems. If there is no severe mental disturbance, the responsibility for a crime or for socially damaging or non-conformist behaviour lies with the individual himself. The question, whether a person could have acted differently in a defined situation on the basis of his personality characteristics and his neural constitution, leads to diverse answers. Is anti-social, criminal behaviour a "disturbance in itself" or the result of a personality structure which has been defined as an illness or an organic deficit? The widest branches of science are occupied with this topic: psychiatry, psychology and philosophy, neural sciences and sociology, jurisprudence and ethics. The list could be continued. The results of personality research along with findings concerning neural mis-connections and the discourse regarding free will in contrast to deterministic interpretations are undoubtedly of particular relevance. On the basis of research results from the scientific disciplines mentioned above, the author concludes that people with socially damaging or radically "evil" behaviour are a very heterogeneous group with strongly varying personality profiles, unfavourable family socialisation conditions and often varied neuro-physiological disturbances, but that responsibility for the crimes they are accused of lies with them as long as their disposition and discretion capacity has not been impaired or removed through serious psychiatric illness.Without classifying them as patients, as our fellow citizens, they deserve our due care and recognition of their human dignity.

LTDNA Evidence on Trial

PubMed Central

Roberts, Paul

2016-01-01

Adopting the interpretative/hermeneutical method typical of much legal scholarship, this article considers two sets of issues pertaining to LTDNA profiles as evidence in criminal proceedings. The section titled Expert Evidence as Forensic Epistemic Warrant addresses some rather large questions about the epistemic status and probative value of expert testimony in general. It sketches a theoretical model of expert evidence, highlighting five essential criteria: (1) expert competence; (2) disciplinary domain; (3) methodological validity; (4) materiality; and (5) legal admissibility. This generic model of expert authority, highlighting law's fundamentally normative character, applies to all modern forms of criminal adjudication, across Europe and farther afield. The section titled LTDNA Evidence in UK Criminal Trials then examines English and Northern Irish courts' attempts to get to grips with LTDNA evidence in recent cases. Better appreciating the ways in which UK courts have addressed the challenges of LTDNA evidence may offer some insights into parallel developments in other legal systems. Appellate court rulings follow a predictable judicial logic, which might usefully be studied and reflected upon by any forensic scientist or statistician seeking to operate effectively in criminal proceedings. Whilst each legal jurisdiction has its own unique blend of jurisprudence, institutions, cultures and historical traditions, there is considerable scope for comparative analysis and cross-jurisdictional borrowing and instruction. In the spirit of promoting more nuanced and sophisticated international interdisciplinary dialogue, this article examines UK judicial approaches to LTDNA evidence and begins to elucidate their underlying institutional logic. Legal argument and broader policy debates are not confined to considerations of scientific validity, contamination risks and evidential integrity, or associated judgments of legal admissibility or exclusion. They also crucially concern the manner in which LTDNA profiling results are presented and explained to factfinders in criminal trials. PMID:27826316

CONVERTING THE 'RIGHT TO LIFE' TO THE 'RIGHT TO PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE AND EUTHANASIA': AN ANALYSIS OF CARTER V CANADA (ATTORNEY GENERAL), SUPREME COURT OF CANADA.

PubMed

Chan, Benny; Somerville, Margaret

2016-01-01

In its landmark decision Carter v Canada (Attorney General), the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the criminal prohibition on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia for certain persons in certain circumstances violated their rights to life, liberty, and security of the person in sec. 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and thus was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court in effect overruled its earlier decision, Rodriguez v British Columbia (Attorney General), which upheld the prohibition as constitutionally valid, on the basis of changes in Charter jurisprudence and in the social facts since Rodriguez was decided. We argue that the Supreme Court's Carter decision shows conceptual disagreements with its Rodriguez decision concerning the nature and scope of the sec. 7-protected interests and the accompanying principles of fundamental justice. Not only do these conceptual differences have little to do with the changes that the Court in Carter invoked for 'revisiting' Rodriguez, the Court's articulation of the sec. 7 interests, particularly the right to life, and the principles of fundamental justice, especially the principle of over breadth, are problematic on their own terms. Furthermore, the way in which the Court dealt with evidence regarding abuses in permissive jurisdictions is also subject to criticism. We recommend that if, as now seems inevitable, legislation is introduced, it should mandate that assisted suicide and euthanasia be performed by specially licensed non-medical personnel and only on the authorization of a Superior Court judge. We also reject the key recommendations recently issued by the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

LTDNA Evidence on Trial.

PubMed

Roberts, Paul

2016-01-01

Adopting the interpretative/hermeneutical method typical of much legal scholarship, this article considers two sets of issues pertaining to LTDNA profiles as evidence in criminal proceedings. The section titled Expert Evidence as Forensic Epistemic Warrant addresses some rather large questions about the epistemic status and probative value of expert testimony in general. It sketches a theoretical model of expert evidence, highlighting five essential criteria: (1) expert competence; (2) disciplinary domain; (3) methodological validity; (4) materiality; and (5) legal admissibility. This generic model of expert authority, highlighting law's fundamentally normative character, applies to all modern forms of criminal adjudication, across Europe and farther afield. The section titled LTDNA Evidence in UK Criminal Trials then examines English and Northern Irish courts' attempts to get to grips with LTDNA evidence in recent cases. Better appreciating the ways in which UK courts have addressed the challenges of LTDNA evidence may offer some insights into parallel developments in other legal systems. Appellate court rulings follow a predictable judicial logic, which might usefully be studied and reflected upon by any forensic scientist or statistician seeking to operate effectively in criminal proceedings. Whilst each legal jurisdiction has its own unique blend of jurisprudence, institutions, cultures and historical traditions, there is considerable scope for comparative analysis and cross-jurisdictional borrowing and instruction. In the spirit of promoting more nuanced and sophisticated international interdisciplinary dialogue, this article examines UK judicial approaches to LTDNA evidence and begins to elucidate their underlying institutional logic. Legal argument and broader policy debates are not confined to considerations of scientific validity, contamination risks and evidential integrity, or associated judgments of legal admissibility or exclusion. They also crucially concern the manner in which LTDNA profiling results are presented and explained to factfinders in criminal trials.

Working alliance, interpersonal trust and perceived coercion in mental health review hearings

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background There is some evidence that when mental health commitment hearings are held in accordance with therapeutic jurisprudence principles they are perceived as less coercive, and more just in their procedures leading to improved treatment adherence and fewer hospital readmissions. This suggests an effect of the hearing on therapeutic relationships. We compared working alliance and interpersonal trust in clinicians and forensic patients, whose continued detentions were reviewed by two different legal review bodies according to their legal category. Methods The hearings were rated as positive or negative by patients and treating psychiatrists using the MacArthur scales for perceived coercion, perceived procedural justice (legal and medical) and for the impact of the hearing. We rated Global assessment of Function (GAF), Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS), Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) and Interpersonal Trust in Physician (ITP) scales six months before the hearing and repeated the WAI and ITP two weeks before and two weeks after the hearing, for 75 of 83 patients in a forensic medium and high secure hospital. Results Psychiatrists agreed with patients regarding the rating of hearings. Patients rated civil hearings (MHTs) more negatively than hearings under insanity legislation (MHRBs). Those reviewed by MHTs had lower scores for WAI and ITP. However, post-hearing WAI and ITP scores were not different from baseline and pre-hearing scores. Using the receiver operating characteristic, baseline WAI and ITP scores predicted how patients would rate the hearings, as did baseline GAF and PANSS scores. Conclusions There was no evidence that positively perceived hearings improved WAI or ITP, but some evidence showed that negatively perceived hearings worsened them. Concentrating on functional recovery and symptom remission remains the best strategy for improved therapeutic relationships. PMID:22074788

Fatal child abuse in Japan: does a trend exist toward tougher sentencing?

PubMed

Nambu, Saori; Nasu, Ayako; Nishimura, Shigeru; Nishimura, Akiyoshi; Fujiwara, Satoshi

2011-07-01

It has been pointed out in Japan that criminal punishment in domestic homicide cases, especially in fatal child abuse cases, tends to be more lenient than in public homicide cases that occur outside the home. In recent news accounts of fatal child abuse cases, however, the media has reported that court-imposed sentences have tended to be stricter every year. Using the online databases of three major Japanese newspapers, we collected articles about fatal child abuse cases that had been published from January 2008 to December 2009. We analyzed these articles to determine, whether a tendency towards tougher penalties, as was put forward by the media, actually exists at present time in the criminal system in Japan. We found 24 cases, out of which 20 involved only one offender and 4 involved two offenders. These 28 offenders comprised nine biological fathers, 11 biological mothers, and eight other male relatives of the child victims. We found that the sentences handed down by the court clearly tended to be more lenient for female offenders. A new system of criminal jurisprudence, the so-called saiban-in system wherein citizens serve as "lay judges" in criminal trials involving serious crimes, was implemented in Japan at the start of 2009. Each, district court has gradually adopted this new system after a preparation period of approximately five years starting in 2004. Many figures in the Japanese media predicted that the gap between social expectations and court sentences for sanction against domestic homicide cases would be filled with the present transitional period of the Japanese criminal system. However, the present study found no significant difference in the laws regarding sentencing in fatal child abuse cases before and after the preparation period of the saiban-in system.

The development of health law as a way to change traditional attitudes in national legal systems. The influence of international human rights law: what is left for the national legislator?

PubMed

Birmontiene, Toma

2010-03-01

The development of health law as a sovereign subject of law could be seen as a correlative result of the development of international human rights law. From the perspectives of human rights law, health law gives us a unique possibility to change the traditional point of reference - from the regulation of medical procedures, to the protection of human rights as the main objective of law. At the end of the twentieth and the beginning of this century, human rights law and the most influential international instrument--the European Convention on Human Rights (and the jurisprudence of the ECHR) has influenced health care so much that it has became difficult to draw a line between these subjects. Health law sometimes directly influences and even aspires to change the content of Convention rights that are considered to be traditional. However, certain problems of law linked to health law are decided without influencing the essence of rights protected by the Convention, but just by construing the particularities of application of a certain right. In some cases by further developing the requirements of protection of individual rights that are also regulated by the health law, the ECHR even "codifies" some fields of health law (e.g., the rights of persons with mental disorders). The recognition of worthiness and diversity of human rights and the development of their content raise new objectives for national legislators when they regulate the national legal system. Here the national legislator is often put into a quandary whether to implement the standards of human rights that are recognized by the international community, or to refuse to do so, taking account of the interests of a certain group of the electorate.

CONVERTING THE ‘RIGHT TO LIFE’ TO THE ‘RIGHT TO PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE AND EUTHANASIA’: AN ANALYSIS OF CARTER V CANADA (ATTORNEY GENERAL), SUPREME COURT OF CANADA

PubMed Central

Chan, Benny; Somerville, Margaret

2016-01-01

In its landmark decision Carter v Canada (Attorney General), the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the criminal prohibition on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia for certain persons in certain circumstances violated their rights to life, liberty, and security of the person in sec. 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and thus was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court in effect overruled its earlier decision, Rodriguez v British Columbia (Attorney General), which upheld the prohibition as constitutionally valid, on the basis of changes in Charter jurisprudence and in the social facts since Rodriguez was decided. We argue that the Supreme Court's Carter decision shows conceptual disagreements with its Rodriguez decision concerning the nature and scope of the sec. 7-protected interests and the accompanying principles of fundamental justice. Not only do these conceptual differences have little to do with the changes that the Court in Carter invoked for ‘revisiting’ Rodriguez, the Court's articulation of the sec. 7 interests, particularly the right to life, and the principles of fundamental justice, especially the principle of over breadth, are problematic on their own terms. Furthermore, the way in which the Court dealt with evidence regarding abuses in permissive jurisdictions is also subject to criticism. We recommend that if, as now seems inevitable, legislation is introduced, it should mandate that assisted suicide and euthanasia be performed by specially licensed non-medical personnel and only on the authorization of a Superior Court judge. We also reject the key recommendations recently issued by the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying. PMID:27099364

RISKS, REASONS AND RIGHTS: THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENGLISH ABORTION LAW.

PubMed

Scott, Rosamund

2016-01-01

Although there is no right to abort in English law but rather abortion is a crime, the lawful grounds for which are instantiated in the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990), the regulation of abortion is sometimes perceived as being fairly 'liberal'. Accordingly, the idea that aspects of English law could be criticised under the European Convention on Human Rights, with which the UK must comply following the Human Rights Act 1998, may seem unlikely. Indeed, English law is compatible with the consensus amongst contracting states that abortion should be available on maternal health grounds. However, analysis of the UK's negative obligations under Article 8 shows that section 1(1)(a) of the Act is problematic as it operates in the first trimester. Further, given the European Court of Human Rights' emphasis on the reduced margin of appreciation once a state has legalised abortion to some degree and its jurisprudence relating to a state's positive obligations, the analysis shows that, while English law may not be problematic in relation to the lack of guidelines relating to the lawful grounds for abortion, it may well be in relation to the lack of a formal system for the review of any two doctors' decision not to grant a termination. Notwithstanding the morally serious nature of the decision to abort, the analysis overall raises questions about the need for at least some degree of abortion law reform, particularly in relation to the first trimester, towards a more autonomy-focused, though time-limited, rights-based approach. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

The right to health of prisoners in international human rights law.

PubMed

Lines, Rick

2008-01-01

This paper explores the health rights of prisoners as defined in international law, and the mechanisms that have been used to ensure the rights of persons in detention to realise the highest attainable standard of health. It examines this right as articulated within United Nations and regional human rights treaties, non-binding or so-called soft law instruments from international organisations and the jurisprudence of international human rights bodies. It explores the use of economic, social and cultural rights mechanisms, and those within civil and political rights, as they engage the right to health of prisoners, and identifies the minimum legal obligations of governments in order to remain compliant with human rights norms as defined within the international case law. In addressing these issues, this article adopts a holistic approach to the definition of the highest attainable standard of health. This includes a consideration of adequate standards of general medical care, including preventative health and mental health services. It also examines the question of environmental health, and those poor conditions of detention that may exacerbate health decline, disease transmission, mental illness or death. The paper examines the approach to prison health of the United Nations human rights system and its various monitoring bodies, as well as the regional human rights systems in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Based upon this analysis, the paper draws conclusions on the current fulfilment of the right to health of prisoners on an international scale, and proposes expanded mechanisms under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment to monitor and promote the health rights of prisoners at the international and domestic levels.

A Human Rights Perspective of Assisted Suicide: Accounting for Disparate Jurisprudence.

PubMed

Martin, Stevie S

2018-02-01

This article critically examines the decision of the New Zealand High Court in Seales v Attorney-General [2015] NZHC 1239, which rejected the claim that that country's blanket ban on assisted suicide violated various rights enshrined in the New Zealand Bill of Rights. That outcome runs contrary to the Canadian Supreme Court's decision in Carter v Canada (Attorney General) [2015] 1 SCR 331. This disparity in result arose despite overt similarities between the rights documents in each of the jurisdictions and, more significantly, notwithstanding the fact that the trial judge in Seales placed heavy reliance upon the decision in Carter. With two new challenges to the blanket ban on assisted suicide in England and Wales progressing through the lower courts, and given proposed amendments to the ban in both New Zealand and its antipodean neighbours - the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales - it is a propitious time to consider the reasons for the disparate outcomes in Seales and Carter. This article will demonstrate that the trial judge's reasoning in Seales was wanting in a number of important respects, particularly in terms of the characterisation of the objective of the blanket ban. These limitations undermine the decision's utility as authority both domestically and internationally. This is particularly important given the high likelihood that reference will be made to the decision during debate in the New Zealand Parliament regarding amendments to the ban in that country and the possibility that the Legislatures in Victoria and New South Wales, as well as the English courts hearing the current challenges to the ban in that jurisdiction will, particularly given the shared common law background, refer to the judgment in Seales.

Integrated care: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis and literature review

PubMed Central

Sun, Xiaowei; Tang, Wenxi; Ye, Ting; Zhang, Yan; Wen, Bo; Zhang, Liang

2014-01-01

Introduction Integrated care could not only fix up fragmented health care but also improve the continuity of care and the quality of life. Despite the volume and variety of publications, little is known about how ‘integrated care’ has developed. There is a need for a systematic bibliometric analysis on studying the important features of the integrated care literature. Aim To investigate the growth pattern, core journals and jurisdictions and identify the key research domains of integrated care. Methods We searched Medline/PubMed using the search strategy ‘(delivery of health care, integrated [MeSH Terms]) OR integrated care [Title/Abstract]’ without time and language limits. Second, we extracted the publishing year, journals, jurisdictions and keywords of the retrieved articles. Finally, descriptive statistical analysis by the Bibliographic Item Co-occurrence Matrix Builder and hierarchical clustering by SPSS were used. Results As many as 9090 articles were retrieved. Results included: (1) the cumulative numbers of the publications on integrated care rose perpendicularly after 1993; (2) all documents were recorded by 1646 kinds of journals. There were 28 core journals; (3) the USA is the predominant publishing country; and (4) there are six key domains including: the definition/models of integrated care, interdisciplinary patient care team, disease management for chronically ill patients, types of health care organizations and policy, information system integration and legislation/jurisprudence. Discussion and conclusion Integrated care literature has been most evident in developed countries. International Journal of Integrated Care is highly recommended in this research area. The bibliometric analysis and identification of publication hotspots provides researchers and practitioners with core target journals, as well as an overview of the field for further research in integrated care. PMID:24987322

"Symptoms of something all around us": Mental health, Inuit culture, and criminal justice in Arctic communities in Nunavut, Canada.

PubMed

Ferrazzi, Priscilla; Krupa, Terry

2016-09-01

Rehabilitation-oriented criminal court mental health initiatives to reduce the number of people with mental illness caught in the criminal justice system exist in many North American cities and elsewhere but not in the mainly Inuit Canadian Arctic territory of Nunavut. This study explores whether the therapeutic aims of these resource-intensive, mainly urban initiatives can be achieved in criminal courts in Nunavut's resource constrained, culturally distinct and geographically remote communities. A qualitative multiple-case study in the communities of Iqaluit, Arviat and Qikiqtarjuaq involved 55 semi-structured interviews and three focus groups with participants representing four sectors essential to these initiatives: justice, health, community organizations and community members. These interviews explored whether the therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) principles that guide criminal court mental health initiatives and the component objectives of these principles could be used to improve the criminal court response to people with mental illness in Nunavut. Interviews revealed 13 themes reflecting perceptions of Inuit culture's influence on the identification of people with mental illness, treatment, and collaboration between the court and others. These themes include cultural differences in defining mental illness, differences in traditional and contemporary treatment models, and the importance of mutual cultural respect. The findings suggest Inuit culture, including its recent history of cultural disruption and change, affects the vulnerability of Nunavut communities to the potential moral and legal pitfalls associated with TJ and criminal court mental health initiatives. These pitfalls include the dominance of biomedical approaches when identifying a target population, the medicalization of behaviour and culture, the risk of "paternalism" in therapeutic interventions, and shortcomings in interdisciplinary collaboration that limit considerations of Inuit culture. The pitfalls are not fatal to efforts to bring the rehabilitative benefits of these initiatives to Nunavut, but they require careful vigilance when employing TJ principles in an Indigenous circumpolar context. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

United Nations and human cloning: a slender and fortunate defence for biomedical research.

PubMed

Edwards, R G

2003-12-01

Numerous biomedical scientists have contributed to the wide knowledge on the growth of preimplantation human embryos in vitro, now improving every aspect of the form of clinical care. These data were gained ethically in many countries, to open new vistas including the alleviation of infertility, preimplantation genetic diagnosis and stem cells, combined with some recent reports on human reproductive cloning. After detailed consultations with scientists, clinicians, ethicists and lawyers, many governments passed legislation permitting research under their own particular socially-defined conditions. Virtually all of them rejected reproductive cloning; a few have accepted therapeutic cloning. These legislatures saluted the many biomedical scientists striving to improve IVF and its derivatives, recognizing their immense medical potential. A motion recently placed before the United Nations then recommended a worldwide ban on all forms of human cloning. Proponents included the Vatican and many Roman Catholic countries, the USA and others. Opponents included Belgium, China, Japan, Brazil, UK, Germany and France. Mediation was achieved by Iran and other Muslim nations, and led to a motion passed by single vote for a two-year delay. This may be the first-ever proposal to ban worldwide a particular form of research. It sounds the alarm bells for further research. It raises questions about the UN being an appropriate forum for ethical decisions affecting the entire world and its future medicine. Large blocs of nations committed to particular religions and outlooks confronted each other, a situation in total contrast to the detailed and widespread consultations made by individual governments when deciding their own individual ethics. This event was clearly a narrow escape for free research as defined by each country's own jurisprudence. It also places research on human embryology and reproductive biomedicine into a more critical situation than before. Current liberalism in studies on assisted conception, clearly threatened by powerful adversaries, will have to be fortified to maintain the current impetus into newer forms of clinical care.

The response of Islamic jurisprudence to ectopic pregnancies, frozen embryo implantation and euthanasia.

PubMed

Ghanem, I

1987-07-01

The opinions of the Jurisconsult of Egypt on Islamic law regarding test tube fertilization, embryo transfer and abortion are explained. Test tube babies, if not derived from the husband's sperm, are by definition, "zina" or the result of illicit sexual intercourse. This type of quasi-adultery is punishable by mere disgracing, rather than lapidation, or stoning to death. Such children cannot inherit even from the mother. Possibly, a female child may marry the husband, to be legitimized in terms of inheritance. Under Islamic law, embryo transfer is illegal insofar as it involves artificial insemination of the donor by the husband; temporary maternity by the donor is a jural concept that has no place in Islamic family law. The egg of the donor, not the surrogate mother, places the issue in the thorny area of multiple suckling. There have been no pronouncements by Islamic legal experts on euthanasia or pregnancy by in vitro fertilization of orphaned embryos. Abortion law "ijhad" in Kuwait was amended in 1982 to permit abortion where either grievous bodily harm to the mother is imminent or it is proved that the baby will suffer incurable brain damage or severe mental retardation. The decision must be approved unanimously by 3 Muslim consultant physicians presided over by an obstetrician or gynecologist, parental consent is required, and the hospital must have an obstetric-gynecological wing. There is precedent in Islamic law for saving the life of the mother where there is a clear choice of allowing either the fetus or the mother to survive. Similarly in case of miscarriage or attempted miscarriage, damages for a fetus or stillborn are less than those paid for a live birth. Penalties for therapeutic abortion, for example after exposure to German measles, have been viewed as less serious before 120 days of gestation, when the Prophet indicated that the embryo is given a soul. These ethical interpretations are worth considering for Western jurists as a source of ideas.

Abortion law in Muslim-majority countries: an overview of the Islamic discourse with policy implications.

PubMed

Shapiro, Gilla K

2014-07-01

Religion plays a significant role in a patient’s bioethical decision to have an abortion as well as in a country’s abortion policy. Nevertheless, a holistic understanding of the Islamic position remains under-researched. This study first conducted a detailed and systematic analysis of Islam’s position towards abortion through examining the most authoritative biblical texts (i.e. the Quran and Sunnah) as well as other informative factors (i.e. contemporary fatwas, Islamic mysticism and broader Islamic principles, interest groups, and transnational Islamic organizations). Although Islamic jurisprudence does not encourage abortion, there is no direct biblical prohibition. Positions on abortion are notably variable, and many religious scholars permit abortion in particular circumstances during specific stages of gestational development. It is generally agreed that the least blameworthy abortion is when the life of the pregnant woman is threatened and when 120 days have not lapsed; however, there is remarkable heterogeneity in regards to other circumstances (e.g. preserving physical or mental health, foetal impairment, rape, or social or economic reasons), and later gestational development of the foetus. This study secondly conducted a cross-country examination of abortion rights in Muslim-majority countries. A predominantly conservative approach was found whereby 18 of 47 countries do not allow abortion under any circumstances besides saving the life of the pregnant woman. Nevertheless, there was substantial diversity between countries, and 10 countries allowed abortion ‘on request’. Discursive elements that may enable policy development in Muslim-majority countries as well as future research that may enhance the study of abortion rights are discussed. Particularly, more lenient abortion laws may be achieved through disabusing individuals that the most authoritative texts unambiguously oppose abortion, highlighting more lenient interpretations that exist in certain Islamic legal schools, emphasizing significant actors that support abortion, and being mindful of policy frames that will not be well-received in Muslim-majority countries.

[Off-label drug use of the misoprostol in gynecology & obstetrics: From a medico-economics benefit to a potential legal risk].

PubMed

Decamps-Mini, D; Pelofi, J; Treisser, A

2015-06-01

The scandal of the Mediator® case led the legislature to take measures in order to regulate off-label drugs prescriptions. Indeed the law issued in December 29th, 2011 on strengthening the safety of drugs and all derivative health products came to pave the way for an "over-cautious" practice of medicine in line with the precautionary principle erected as a constitutional principle. The supervision of off-label prescribing has had a direct impact on the exercise of the medical profession and has resurrected the issues related to the freedom of prescription, the obligation to provide information to patients and in general their whole responsibility. It is important to mention that the prescribing act is part of the freedom and the strict prerogative of those skilled in the art: the physician in this case. The off-label prescription is commonly accepted in certain specialties, such as anesthesia and intensive care, oncology or pediatrics where it is even subject of a memorandum of use because of concerns regarding the availability of forms adapted to children. However, the physician must ensure that no appropriate therapeutic alternative is available and inform the patient, fundamental principle of the right to respect for the will of the person. Off-label use of the prostaglandin-E1 analogue misoprostol in obstetrics and gynecology is a good example. In fact, this drug obtained a marketing authorization for the treatment or prevention of peptic ulcers and other stomach disorders, is commonly used off-label when inducing labour or intrauterine device insertion. These are the issues that need to be clarify and carefully assessed in order to help physicians to understand the impact of the law and the state of the jurisprudence on the exercise of their profession. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier SAS.

Land security and the challenges of realizing the human right to water and sanitation in the slums of Mumbai, India.

PubMed

Murthy, Sharmila L

2012-12-15

Addressing the human right to water and sanitation in the slums of Mumbai, India requires disentangling the provision of basic services from a more complicated set of questions around land security and land ownership. Millions of slum-dwellers in Mumbai lack adequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation, which places them at risk for waterborne diseases. Many slums are located in hazardous areas such as flood plains, increasing their susceptibility to climate change-related weather patterns. Access to water and sanitation in slums generally hinges on whether a dwelling was created prior to January 1, 1995, because those constructed created prior to that date have greater land security. Although the so-called "1995 cut-off rule" looms large in Mumbai slum policy, a closer reading of the relevant laws and regulations suggests that access to water and sanitation could be expanded to slums created after January 1, 1995. State and municipal governments already have the authority to expand access to water services; they just need to exercise their discretion. However, slums located on central government land are in a more difficult position. Central government agencies in Mumbai have often refused to allow the state and municipal governments to rehabilitate or improve access to services for slums located on their land. As a result, an argument could be made that by interfering with the efforts of sub-national actors to extend water and sanitation to services to slum-dwellers, the central government of India is violating its obligations to respect the human right to water and sanitation under international and national jurisprudence. Copyright © 2012 Murthy. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The socio-political situation of Avicenna's time and his spiritual messages: on the occasion of 1031 st birth anniversary of Avicenna (23 August 980).

PubMed

Hatami, Hossein; Hatami, Maryam; Hatami, Neda

2013-06-01

In the fourth century A.H. (tenth century AD) many thinkers, philosophers, jurisprudents, poets, and authors were present in different scientific, literary and health fields in ancient Iran and Islamic world that by their hard attempts the sciences and literature were safe from incidents and resulted in growth, development and innovation of Islamic sciences. Meanwhile, Avicenna was superior to all others and the most famous scientist. He was a great human that by attempting hard, perseverance, stability, patience, and believing in God could complete supreme scientific ranks and compiled encyclopedia of Canon of Medicine and besides gathering many written important issues that most of them were confiscated at libraries of kings. He added medical experiences of ancient Iran and especially Jondishapour University and also his personal experiences and finally Canon of Medicine by benefiting from monotheistic style and science based on faith was written. He has written a book that is regarded as root and basics of modern medicine and by completing it some infrastructure health viewpoints and common medicine were created. It is a kind of book that in spite of scientific advances and production of modern research tools many of its contents are replaced with modern methods of medicine and health, but still many of its health basic messages, research orientation and monotheism with great dynamic mode is considerable at world's medical references. The aim of this study is evaluate the political situation of Avicenna's time and a review of his Godly writings. This is a library study by using electronic version of Canon of Medicine and other related resources. Findings, include writing style of monotheistic literature, and freeing from nihilism and affiliating diseases to Satan, jinn and such issues. It is necessary that our students within course of Iranian and Islamic culture and civilization to be more familiar with monotheistic thoughts and activities of scientists like Avicenna.

Attitudes towards informed consent, confidentiality, and substitute treatment decisions in southern African medical students: a case study from Zimbabwe.

PubMed

Hipshman, L

1999-08-01

This study explored the attitudes of biomedical science students (medical students) in a non-Western setting towards three medical ethics concepts that are based on fundamental Western culture ethical principles. A dichotomous (agree/disagree) response questionnaire was constructed using Western ethnocentric culture (WEC) based perspectives of informed consent, confidentiality, and substitute decision-making. Hypothesized WEC-Biased responses were assigned to the questionnaire's questions or propositions. A number of useful responses (169) were obtained from a large, cross-sectional, convenience sample of the MBChB students at the University of Zimbabwe Medical School. Statistical analysis described the differences in response patterns between the student's responses compared to the hypothesized WEC-Biased response. The effect of the nine independent variables on selected dependent variables (responses to certain questionnaire questions) was analyzed by stepwise logistic regression. Students concurred with the hypothesized WEC-Biased responses for two-thirds of the questionnaire items. This agreement included support for the role of legal advocacy in the substitute decision-making process. The students disagreed with the hypothesized WEC-Biased responses in several important medical ethics aspects. Most notably, the students indicated that persons with mental dysfunctions, as a class, were properly considered incompetent to make treatment decisions. None of the studied independent variables was often associated with students' responses, but training year was more frequently implicated than either ethnicity or gender. In order to develop internationally and culturally relevant medical ethics standards, non-Western perspectives ought to be acknowledged and incorporated. Two main areas for further efforts include: curriculum development in ethics reasoning and related clinical (medico-legal) decision-making processes that would be relevant to medical students from various cultures, and; the testing of models that could increase legal system input in the clinical process in societies with limited jurisprudence resources.

Is the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Impacting Mental Health Laws and Policies in High-Income Countries? A Case Study of Implementation in Canada.

PubMed

Hoffman, Steven J; Sritharan, Lathika; Tejpar, Ali

2016-11-11

Persons with psychosocial disabilities face disparate access to healthcare and social services worldwide, along with systemic discrimination, structural inequalities, and widespread human rights abuses. Accordingly, many people have looked to international human rights law to help address mental health challenges. On December 13, 2006, the United Nations formally adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) - the first human rights treaty of the 21st century and the fastest ever negotiated. This study assesses the CRPD's potential impact on mental health systems and presents a legal and public policy analysis of its implementation in one high-income country: Canada. As part of this analysis, a critical review was undertaken of the CRPD's implementation in Canadian legislation, public policy, and jurisprudence related to mental health. While the Convention is clearly an important step forward, there remains a divide, even in Canada, between the Convention's goals and the experiences of Canadians with disabilities. Its implementation is perhaps hindered most by Canada's reservations to Article 12 of the CRPD on legal capacity for persons with psychosocial disabilities. The overseeing CRPD Committee has stated that Article 12 only permits "supported decision-making" regimes, yet most Canadian jurisdictions maintain their "substitute decision-making" regimes. This means that many Canadians with mental health challenges continue to be denied legal capacity to make decisions related to their healthcare, housing, and finances. But changes are afoot: new legislation has been introduced in different jurisdictions across the country, and recent court decisions have started to push policymakers in this direction. Despite the lack of explicit implementation, the CRPD has helped to facilitate a larger shift in social and cultural paradigms of mental health and disability in Canada. But ratification and passive implementation are not enough. Further efforts are needed to implement the CRPD's provisions and promote the equal enjoyment of human rights by all Canadian citizens - and presumably for all other people too, from the poorest to the wealthiest countries.

Unborn children as constitutional persons.

PubMed

Roden, Gregory J

2010-01-01

In Roe v. Wade, the state of Texas argued that "the fetus is a 'person' within the language and meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment." To which Justice Harry Blackmun responded, "If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment." However, Justice Blackmun then came to the conclusion "that the word 'person,' as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn." In this article, it is argued that unborn children are indeed "persons" within the language and meaning of the Fourteenth and Fifth Amendments. As there is no constitutional text explicitly holding unborn children to be, or not to be, "persons," this argument will be based on the "historical understanding and practice, the structure of the Constitution, and thejurisprudence of [the Supreme] Court." Specifically, it is argued that the Constitution does not confer upon the federal government a specifically enumerated power to grant or deny "personhood" under the Fourteenth Amendment. Rather, the power to recognize or deny unborn children as the holders of rights and duties has been historically exercised by the states. The Roe opinion and other Supreme Court cases implicitly recognize this function of state sovereignty. The states did exercise this power and held unborn children to be persons under the property, tort, and criminal law of the several states at the time Roe was decided. As an effect of the unanimity of the states in holding unborn children to be persons under criminal, tort, and property law, the text of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment compels federal protection of unborn persons. Furthermore, to the extent Justice Blackmun examined the substantive law in these disciplines, his findings are clearly erroneous and as a whole amount to judicial error. Moreover, as a matter of procedure, according to the due process standards recognized in Fifth Amendment jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade should be held null and void as to the rights and interests of unborn persons.

The role of religion in decision-making on antenatal screening of congenital anomalies: a qualitative study amongst Muslim Turkish origin immigrants.

PubMed

Gitsels-van der Wal, Janneke T; Manniën, Judith; Ghaly, Mohammed M; Verhoeven, Pieternel S; Hutton, Eileen K; Reinders, Hans S

2014-03-01

to explore what role religious beliefs of pregnant Muslim women play in their decision-making on antenatal screening, particularly regarding congenital abnormalities and termination, and whether their interpretations of the religious doctrines correspond to the main sources of Islam. qualitative pilot study using in-depth interviews with pregnant Muslim women. one midwifery practice in a medium-sized city near Amsterdam participated in the study. 10 pregnant Muslim women of Turkish origin who live in a high density immigrant area and who attended primary midwives for antenatal care were included in the study. to explore the role of religion in decision-making on antenatal screening tests, a topic list was constructed, including four subjects: being a (practising) Muslim, the view on unborn life, the view on disabled life and the view on termination. To analyse the interviews, open and axial coding based on the Grounded Theory was used and descriptive and analytical themes were identified and interpreted. all 10 interviewees stated that their faith played a role in their decision-making on antenatal screening, specific to the combined test. They did not consider congenital anomalies as a problem and did not consider termination to be an option in case of a disabled fetus. However, the Islamic jurisprudence considers that termination is allowed if the fetus has serious abnormalities, but only before 19 weeks plus one day of gestation. religious convictions play a role regarding antenatal screening in pregnant Muslim women of Turkish origin. The interviewees did not consider a termination in case of an affected child. Women were unaware that within Islamic tradition there is the possibility of termination if a fetus has serious anomalies. Incomplete knowledge of religious doctrines may be influencing both decisions of antenatal screening and diagnostic tests uptake and of terminating a pregnancy for fetuses with serious anomalies. counsellors should be aware of the role of religious beliefs in the decision-making process on antenatal screening tests. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Conscientious objection to sexual and reproductive health services: international human rights standards and European law and practice.

PubMed

Zampas, Christina; Andión-Ibañez, Ximena

2012-06-01

The practice of conscientious objection often arises in the area of individuals refusing to fulfil compulsory military service requirements and is based on the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion as protected by national, international and regional human rights law. The practice of conscientious objection also arises in the field of health care, when individual health care providers or institutions refuse to provide certain health services based on religious, moral or philosophical objections. The use of conscientious objection by health care providers to reproductive health care services, including abortion, contraceptive prescriptions, and prenatal tests, among other services is a growing phenomena throughout Europe. However, despite recent progress from the European Court of Human Rights on this issue (RR v. Poland, 2011), countries and international and regional bodies generally have failed to comprehensively and effectively regulate this practice, denying many women reproductive health care services they are legally entitled to receive. The Italian Ministry of Health reported that in 2008 nearly 70% of gynaecologists in Italy refuse to perform abortions on moral grounds. It found that between 2003 and 2007 the number of gynaecologists invoking conscientious objection in their refusal to perform an abortion rose from 58.7 percent to 69.2 percent. Italy is not alone in Europe, for example, the practice is prevalent in Poland, Slovakia, and is growing in the United Kingdom. This article outlines the international and regional human rights obligations and medical standards on this issue, and highlights some of the main gaps in these standards. It illustrates how European countries regulate or fail to regulate conscientious objection and how these regulations are working in practice, including examples of jurisprudence from national level courts and cases before the European Court of Human Rights. Finally, the article will provide recommendations to national governments as well as to international and regional bodies on how to regulate conscientious objection so as to both respect the practice of conscientious objection while protecting individual's right to reproductive health care.

Vast Rise of Unconventional Hydraulic Fracturing in the United States, and the Extensive Adverse Ecological and Legal Consequences, Resulting from Failed Federal and State Regulatory Policies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krokus, A.

2017-12-01

The quantity of unconventional HF campaigns has increased immensely, predominantly in the US, over the past decade. Numerous scholars have published research pertaining to the negative consequences resulting from HF. The principal contributor of the detrimental damage sustained, is the regulations administering HF, fail to protect against adverse externalities such as the increased frequency and intensity of injection induced seismicity. Induced earthquakes are now associated within the scope of civil litigation. Historically, seismicity has been perceived as an unpredictable catastrophic event. Currently, there is a plethora of litigation transpiring due to induced seismicity. These credible cases pose as a peril to existing legal theory, generating the potential to manifest profound consequences. Conducting qualitative policy oriented research indicated that regulations which protect against unfavorable repercussions, are administered by state authorities and corporations, who provide absolute governance. The EPA of 2005, 42 USCS § 15801 exempted HF from CWA, 33 USCS § 1251 and SWDA, 42 USCS § 300f. Applying an analytical jurisprudence approach, utilizing qualitative, longitudinal, and explanatory indagation, this study reviewed judicial dictum, orbiter dictum, along with transcripts related to every pending, dismissed, or settled litigated claim, related to damages involving induced seismicity in the states of AR, OK, and TX. Concluding that plaintiffs seeking declaratory and injunctive relief under RCRA, 42 U.S.C. § 6972(a)(1)(B) will be unsuccessful. District judges have followed precedent established by 319 U.S. 315 (1943), recently demonstrated in Sierra Club v. Chesapeake Operating, 5:16-CV-00134, and Pawnee Nation v. Eagle Road Oil, No. CIV-2017-803. Federal legislators can enact safe regulations under U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 3, articulated in 312 U.S. 100 (1941), reaffirmed by 317 U.S. 111 (1942), and 514 U.S. 549 (1995). OR has predicted a 40% chance of a Mw ≥ 9 earthquake occurring in the PNW CSZ before 2066. Action must be taken to circumvent a premature environmental extirpation. This study has led to the development of a legislative concept, which has obtained support from multiple OR Senators, including two members of the OR Senate Committee on Environment & Natural Resources.

Mortgages, seniors and the common law contractual doctrine of mental incapacity in Australia.

PubMed

Burns, Fiona

2011-01-01

Seniors in Australia are being called upon to mortgage their most precious economic asset, the family home. They may be asked to guarantee the liabilities of other family members by providing a mortgage-based guarantee or they may decide to enter into a reverse mortgage to supplement financially their savings and pensions. As the family home is the single most valuable asset for most older Australians, the creation of any obligations in regard to it ought to be undertaken with care and vigilance. While seniors are free to create mortgage, they may lack the capacity to understand the legal ramifications of these complex transactions or be unable to protect their interests when entering into them. It is not suggested that older Australians necessarily suffer a lack of contractual capacity. Many seniors are more than able to take care of their interests and assets. However, some seniors do suffer cognitive impairment which adversely affects their capacity to act in their best interests and to navigate the complexities of contractual relations. In contract and mortgage law, this raises the issue of mental incapacity. For centuries, the common law has recognized not only that mentally incapacitated people exist, but that they may enter into contracts such as mortgage and may later wish to have the mortgage set aside. The present formulation of the contractual doctrine of mental incapacity is the product of 19th century jurisprudence in which the courts framed the doctrine to accommodate commercial dealing rather than the interests of persons who lacked the necessary mental capacity. Accordingly, the doctrine has been very difficult to rely on successfully when challenging mortgages made by persons lacking capacity. Therefore, Australian litigators and courts alike have sought to deal with mental incapacity issues in the contractual context by using and modifying other doctrines (such as non est factum, undue influence and unconscionable dealing) in which the issue of capacity may be incorporated, but where mental incapacity need not be the sole or primary focus. While this had led to greater success for mortgagors, this has been at the expense of the common law doctrine. The article concludes by offering some suggestions as to how the doctrine may be modernized and mental capacity dealt with in a way both to empower competent seniors and protect those vulnerable seniors suffering cognitive impairment. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

[Criminologic problems of political change in Spain].

PubMed

Gómez, A S

1981-01-01

In this article the Author considers the modern-day and historical situation as regards the administration of justice in Spain, pausing to make a particularly careful analysis of those crimes whose rate of increase, over the past few years, has been the greatest. He runs back over the various stages of Spain's recent history: from the period preceding Franco's regime, during which a multiplicity of criminological theories were developed by Spanish authors, leading to the creation of a school of jurisprudence, in which theory and practice tended toward seeking a balance between freedom and security; through the period of the dictatorship, in which there was a tightening-up of the preceding trend, with a definite predisposition towards security, whether within the State or external to it (to be noted--the Author observes--is that this security in reality is not a guarantee of the lives and liberties of the citizens, but rather only a safeguarding of the State from attacks on its supremacy and power); to the successive period of the democracy, which came about without cruel and revolutionary upsets, but nonetheless has felt for many years the effects of the preceding political climate; criminality is increasing considerably, but the administration of justice is not able to soundly and accurately evaluate it, it having functioned at only 45% efficiency--or so says the Author--up until 1978: the imbalances in the society that can be seen in its passage through the various political regimes are, therefore, present too in the field of criminality; this, in fact, is apparently decreasing (since crimes against the external and internal security of the State are decreasing, as the number of convictions are decreasing); but in reality this criminality is undergoing a strong evolutionary movement, due more than anything else to the fact that the tendency is to give priority to liberty, and no longer to security, as is true in fact of every democratic regime. Even in 1978, when the new regime was by now consolidated and stabilized, the administration of justice had found too stability and balance; the consequences of this are, on the one hand, a decrease in crimes against the state as such, and on the other hand, an increase in the crimes peculiar to a democratic country (such as terrorism, drug-pushing, robbery) committed by ever-younger criminals.

[Decree of anaesthesia of 1994, day surgery and medical responsibility: necessary reflections on the inevitable conciliation between regulations and recommendations].

PubMed

Bontemps, G; Daver, C; Ecoffey, C

2014-12-01

Day surgery is often considered as a marker of the necessity of reorganizing the hospital to take care globally and so better meet the expectations of improvement of the management of patients. But the actual deployment of day surgery can also act as a real revelation of the stakes of conciliation between the regulations, which supervise professional practices and organization, and the functioning of hospitals. Between the regulations supervising hospitals and professional practices and the place of the recommendations, between the general legal framework of the medical activity and specific legal framework (decree of anesthesia of 1994) and the Evidence-Based Medicine, the pretext of the improvement of the patient flow in day surgery, recommended by several institutions (Sfar, ANAP, HAS), questions about the legal obligation of the passage of all the patients in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU). Seen under the angle of a legal action against a medical doctor, the study of the French jurisprudence reveals that every practitioner has to respect the recommendations and the Evidence-Based Medicine, and this in the standardized frame of the MD's activity and the respect for a very strict legal environment. The question of an obvious conciliation between all these measures arises today clearly. In the case of a potential conflict, the key of resolution, based only on legal standards (constitution, laws, decrees), is not enough for arbitrating. Applying that the only respect for the decree of anesthesia would be enough for exempting itself from any contentious risk does not satisfy more. There is a real difficulty defining the legal precise nature of the recommendations, so best practices as better organization, which are more and more frequently. Even if these recommendations originally had not their place in the hierarchy of the legal standards, they are brought in there today. There is a real brake in the deployment of the day surgery because the strict respect for the decree of 94 on the systematic passage in PACU can be paradoxical with a better quality of the care. Twenty years after the publication of the decree of anesthesia, it seems essential to ask at first if it's possible to fast-track discharge without any stay in the PACU and thus of the inevitable conciliation between all these measures. Secondly it's necessary of modifying this decree to impulse the deployment of the day surgery. Copyright © 2014 Société française d’anesthésie et de réanimation (Sfar). Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.

[Experts according to Art. 80, Paragraph IV, Law No. 354, 26 July 1975, and the obligation to professional secrecy].

PubMed

Coco, N

1981-01-01

The multiplicity of advertising "concerns" acts, with a more prominent emphasis in recent times, as the necessary condition for an increasing deterioration of professional reserve to the level of a merely formal statement. Especially as regards the medical profession, as broadly understood, the institution of "specialist categories" directly tied to "public bodies" and to "agencies", private or public, responsible for or helping to effect, the "monitoring" of special characteristics peculiar to the most intimate sphere of subjectivity, remarkable "deviations" can be observed as against the anamnestic (having to do with case histories--trans.), analytic, and clearly therapeutic safeguarding that, to the contrary, ought to receive an inviolable defense on the part of the Italian regulatory system--executive, in the sense of rigorous constitutional provisions. To emphasize the deep erosion of professional reserve, demonstrable to the highest degree by the present levels of penal doctrine and jurisprudence as specifically regards criminal cases sanctioned by art. 622 of the penal code, is therefore equivalent to the bringing into focus of a general social and regulatory problem, one that is obviously expanding, as regards its importance and its capacity to "alarm", within the sphere of the observation of personality and of institutionalized treatment as prescribed by the law of 26 July 1975, no. 354, bearing the title "Penitentiary Organization". The need for establishing a climate of "confidentiality"--confirmed by a number of papers on criminology and "penitentiary technique"--among the convicts, and "therapy", is therefore included within the considerably larger theme of the rights of the condemned person, of his assent to being subjected to "resocializing operations", as well as of the guarantee of not having to undergo further negative consequences, beyond his state of restricted freedom, whether on the legal plane or on the plane of his psycho-physical integrity. Therefore, quite beyond the many-sided (and often these are used as pretexts) "just reasons" brought forth to justify any information, setting specifically aside that of the "consultants spoken of in art. 80" of the law cited, concerning confidential data or anyway sources of harm to the passive subjects, it is urgent that there be given an extremely severe interpretation of the law's provisions, there being symbiotically acknowledged the right to abstain, as regards the consultants themselves, from the "divulging" of any information beyond their strictly medical opinion, and the option for those subjected to observation and treatment to make out a complaint where there are the requisites tending to make the possibility of a crime's having been committed a concrete fact.

Navigating the Rolling Hills of Justice: Mental Disabilities, Employment and the Evolving Jurisprudence of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

PubMed

Wylonis, Lauren; Wylonis, Nina T; Sadoff, Robert

2017-03-01

Mental illness and disability affect millions of individuals yearly in the U.S. The most important legislation protecting the mentally disabled in the workplace in the U.S. over the last half century has been the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its associated legislation and guidance. Although the employee should first request reasonable accommodation with the employer, evaluation by a mental health professional is one of the initial steps for individuals who report significant psychiatric symptoms that are impairing their functioning at work in the U.S.. Important regulations and laws in the United States that are essential knowledge to performing thorough mental disability evaluations include the ADA and Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), Social Security Disability, Workers' Compensation, and private disability insurance. These laws differ in applicability and in their definitions of disability. Social Security Disability is applicable to workers who have long-term impairments regardless of whether the disability arose on or off the job, while Worker's Compensation is specific to persons with work-related illness and injuries that occur on the job (Reno, Williams, & Sengupta, ). The Social Security definition of a disabled person is a person who is not "able to engage in any substantial gainful activity because of a medically-determinable physical or mental impairment(s): that is expected to result in death, or that has lasted or is expected to last for a continuous period of at least 12 months" (Social Security Red Book, ). However, the Workers' Compensation definition of what illnesses/injuries are compensated, the level of benefits and who provides the insurance are state-specific. Due to these differences in definition of disability, it is essential for the mental health professional performing a mental disability evaluation to clarify with the referral source or referring agency which legislation and laws they feel are directly relevant to the specific situation before starting the evaluation. While the ADA and ADA Amendments Act of 2008 have had the greatest impact on the improvement of conditions for mentally disabled individuals in employment over the last 25 years, they have also been the most challenging by far for mental health experts to understand and apply (Cook, ). Interestingly, the ADA has had a much quicker effect on improving access to services for the medically disabled as compared with the mentally disabled in the U.S. (Ullman, Johnsen, Moss, & Burris, ). This article reviews the history and status of current ADA- and ADAAA-related law and employment as well as Canadian disability law and global progress towards universal disability legislation as evidenced by the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Environmental legislation as the legal framework for mitigating natural hazards in Spain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garrido, Jesús; Arana, Estanislao; Jiménez Soto, Ignacio; Delgado, José

2015-04-01

In Spain, the socioeconomic losses due to natural hazards (floods, earthquakes or landslides) are considerable, and the indirect costs associated with them are rarely considered because they are very difficult to evaluate. The prevention of losses due to natural hazards is more economic and efficient through legislation and spatial planning rather than through structural measures, such as walls, anchorages or structural reinforcements. However, there isn't a Spanish natural hazards law and national and regional sector legislation make only sparse mention of them. After 1978, when the Spanish Constitution was enacted, the Autonomous Communities (Spanish regions) were able to legislate according to the different competences (urban planning, environment or civil protection), which were established in the Constitution. In the 1990's, the Civil Protection legislation (national law and regional civil protection tools) dealt specifically with natural hazards (floods, earthquakes and volcanoes), but this was before any soil, seismic or hydrological studies were recommended in the national sector legislation. On the other hand, some Autonomous Communities referred to natural hazards in the Environmental Impact Assessment legislation (EIA) and also in the spatial and urban planning legislation and tools. The National Land Act, enacted in 1998, established, for the first time, that those lands exposed to natural hazards should be classified as non-developable. The Spanish recast text of the Land Act, enacted by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2008, requires that a natural hazards map be included in the Environmental Sustainability Report (ESR), which is compulsory for all master plans, according to the provisions set out by Act 9/2006, known as Spanish Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Consequently, the environmental legislation, after the aforementioned transposition of the SEA European Directive 2001/42/EC, is the legal framework to prevent losses due to natural hazards through land use planning. However, most of the Spanish master plans approved after 2008 don't include a natural hazards map or/and don't classify the areas exposed to natural hazards as non-developable. Restrictions or prohibitions for building in natural hazard-prone areas are not usually established in the master plans. According to the jurisprudence, the environmental legislation prevails over spatial and urban planning regulations. On the other hand, the precedence of the national competence in public security would allow reclassification or the land, independently of the political or economic motivations of the municipal government. Despite of the technical building code or the seismic building code where some recommendations for avoiding "geotechnical" or seismic hazards are established, there are not compulsory guidelines to do technical studies/hazard maps for floods or landslides. The current legislation should be improved, under a technical point of view, and some mechanisms for enforcing the law should be also considered.

A proposal for a worldwide definition of health resort medicine, balneology, medical hydrology and climatology.

PubMed

Gutenbrunner, Christoph; Bender, Tamas; Cantista, Pedro; Karagülle, Zeki

2010-09-01

Health Resort Medicine, Balneology, Medical Hydrology and Climatology are not fully recognised as independent medical specialties at a global international level. Analysing the reasons, we can identify both external (from outside the field) and internal (from inside the field) factors. External arguments include, e.g. the lack of scientific evidence, the fact that Balneotherapy and Climatotherapy is not used in all countries, and the fact that Health Resort Medicine, Balneology, Medical Hydrology and Climatology focus only on single methods and do not have a comprehensive concept. Implicit barriers are the lack of international accepted terms in the field, the restriction of being allowed to practice the activities only in specific settings, and the trend to use Balneotherapy mainly for wellness concepts. Especially the implicit barriers should be subject to intense discussions among scientists and specialists. This paper suggests one option to tackle the problem of implicit barriers by making a proposal for a structure and description of the medical field, and to provide some commonly acceptable descriptions of content and terminology. The medical area can be defined as "medicine in health resorts" (or "health resort medicine"). Health resort medicine includes "all medical activities originated and derived in health resorts based on scientific evidence aiming at health promotion, prevention, therapy and rehabilitation". Core elements of health resort interventions in health resorts are balneotherapy, hydrotherapy, and climatotherapy. Health resort medicine can be used for health promotion, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. The use of natural mineral waters, gases and peloids in many countries is called balneotherapy, but other (equivalent) terms exist. Substances used for balneotherapy are medical mineral waters, medical peloids, and natural gases (bathing, drinking, inhalation, etc.). The use of plain water (tap water) for therapy is called hydrotherapy, and the use of climatic factors for therapy is called climatotherapy. Reflecting the effects of health resort medicine, it is important to take other environmental factors into account. These can be classified within the framework of the ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health). Examples include receiving health care by specialised doctors, being well educated (ICF-domain: e355), having an environment supporting social contacts (family, peer groups) (cf. ICF-domains: d740, d760), facilities for recreation, cultural activities, leisure and sports (cf. ICF-domain: d920), access to a health-promoting atmosphere and an environment close to nature (cf. ICF-domain: e210). The scientific field dealing with health resort medicine is called health resort sciences. It includes the medical sciences, psychology, social sciences, technical sciences, chemistry, physics, geography, jurisprudence, etc. Finally, this paper proposes a systematic international discussion of descriptions in the field of Health Resort Medicine, Balneology, Medical Hydrology and Climatology, and discusses short descriptive terms with the goal of achieving internationally accepted distinct terms. This task should be done via a structured consensus process and is of major importance for the publication of scientific results as well as for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

The actual goals of geoethics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nemec, Vaclav

2014-05-01

The most actual goals of geoethics have been formulated as results of the International Conference on Geoethics (October 2013) held at the geoethics birth-place Pribram (Czech Republic): In the sphere of education and public enlightenment an appropriate needed minimum know how of Earth sciences should be intensively promoted together with cultivating ethical way of thinking and acting for the sustainable well-being of the society. The actual activities of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Changes are not sustainable with the existing knowledge of the Earth sciences (as presented in the results of the 33rd and 34th International Geological Congresses). This knowledge should be incorporated into any further work of the IPCC. In the sphere of legislation in a large international co-operation following steps are needed: - to re-formulate the term of a "false alarm" and its legal consequences, - to demand very consequently the needed evaluation of existing risks, - to solve problems of rights of individuals and minorities in cases of the optimum use of mineral resources and of the optimum protection of the local population against emergency dangers and disasters; common good (well-being) must be considered as the priority when solving ethical dilemmas. The precaution principle should be applied in any decision making process. Earth scientists presenting their expert opinions are not exempted from civil, administrative or even criminal liabilities. Details must be established by national law and jurisprudence. The well known case of the L'Aquila earthquake (2009) should serve as a serious warning because of the proven misuse of geoethics for protecting top Italian seismologists responsible and sentenced for their inadequate superficial behaviour causing lot of human victims. Another recent scandal with the Himalayan fossil fraud will be also documented. A support is needed for any effort to analyze and to disclose the problems of the deformation of the contemporary science very closely connected with many practical problems in Earth sciences. In the framework of discovering the real and complete truth a broad and open discussion is needed. Possible alternative solutions of any problem are to be admitted in the interest of the common good. Any effort trying to misuse peer reviewing process should be avoided. An open and efficient discussion should be started with media emphasizing their high responsibility for promoting ethical way of thinking and acting as well as a correct promotion of geoethics in the world. Geological art (geoart) should be developed and oriented to a further cultivation of nobility and spirituality of the human kind as well as of its sensibility to the Nature and to the Earth. In mining activities protection of the environment should be always considered by limitation of unwanted environmental impact and by revitalizing areas abandoned by the exploitation. The relatively new and rapidly growing field of nano-materials and other advanced materials and innovation should be taken into consideration because of the existing real visions to replace classical mineral resources in a near future. (This contribution is planned as an introductory overview of ethical and geoethical problems; double time will be needed.)

The religious and social principles of patients' rights in holy books (Avesta, Torah, Bible, and Quran) and in traditional medicine.

PubMed

Hatami, Hossein; Hatami, Maryam; Hatami, Neda

2013-03-01

Health protection and promotion in healthy people and restoring patients' health have been the most important themes in medicine and health throughout our history. Therefore, discussion of different aspects of patients' rights includes implementation of these objectives by the medical community, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc., and the people in charge of health affairs. The principal objective of our research is the study of medical ideology and the approaches of our ancestors in relation to different aspects of patients' rights. To study the different ideologies of traditional medicine in relation to patients' rights, appropriate data were extracted from the original resources of traditional medicine and from religious books. By means of library research we studied these resources in addition to electronic versions of the Alhavi book (by Rhazes), the Kamel-al-Sanaah (by Ahvazi), the Canon of Medicine (by Avicenna), the Zakhireye Khawrazmshahi (by Jorjani), the Avesta, the Torah, the Bible, the Quran, and many other resources, and, finally, after searching, gathering, and encoding the findings, analyzed them qualitatively for thematic content. The holy Avesta book clearly insists on the competence of physicians and setting the appointment fee in accordance with peoples' income. The Old Testament (holy Torah) warned government officials who did not observe patients' rights. In the four gospels (holy Bible) the importance of treatment and taking care of the patient is stressed. After the emergence of Islam, medical students, before beginning the principal courses, had to study Islamic jurisprudence, ethics, logic sciences, natural sciences, geometry, astrology, calculus, and similar courses so that after purifying their soul they could enter the saintly profession of physicians. The holy Quran refers to saving the life of a human irrespective of social class, race, and religion, and insists on exemption of patients from physical activity, including the physical aspects of prayer. In these resources, some warnings are offered in relation to fake drugs, the lack of awareness of some physicians, the need for complete preparedness of medical society, and the need to manufacture appropriate drugs and offer a suitable medical service. This information is to familiarize medical and health authorities and persons receiving health services. According to the evidence available about traditional medicine, there was no specific difference between public and professional ethics, public and professional rights, or rights and ethics-ethics were no different from rights nor rights from ethics. So ethics are similar to the soul in the body of rights, and rights are similar to the litter of ethics, and they have developed in parallel with each other. Traditional medicine is community-based and preservation of the health of healthy people is given priority over the treatment of patients; there is insistence that "health rights" has wider scope than "patients' rights". It can be stated that health rights in Iran both before and after the emergence of Islam have been based on guidance from divine religions, observation of humanist ethics, passing suitable courses in the basic sciences, and an introduction to the practical piety of our ancestors, in addition to the syllabus of medical and health education.

A proposal for a worldwide definition of health resort medicine, balneology, medical hydrology and climatology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gutenbrunner, Christoph; Bender, Tamas; Cantista, Pedro; Karagülle, Zeki

2010-09-01

Health Resort Medicine, Balneology, Medical Hydrology and Climatology are not fully recognised as independent medical specialties at a global international level. Analysing the reasons, we can identify both external (from outside the field) and internal (from inside the field) factors. External arguments include, e.g. the lack of scientific evidence, the fact that Balneotherapy and Climatotherapy is not used in all countries, and the fact that Health Resort Medicine, Balneology, Medical Hydrology and Climatology focus only on single methods and do not have a comprehensive concept. Implicit barriers are the lack of international accepted terms in the field, the restriction of being allowed to practice the activities only in specific settings, and the trend to use Balneotherapy mainly for wellness concepts. Especially the implicit barriers should be subject to intense discussions among scientists and specialists. This paper suggests one option to tackle the problem of implicit barriers by making a proposal for a structure and description of the medical field, and to provide some commonly acceptable descriptions of content and terminology. The medical area can be defined as “medicine in health resorts” (or “health resort medicine”). Health resort medicine includes “all medical activities originated and derived in health resorts based on scientific evidence aiming at health promotion, prevention, therapy and rehabilitation”. Core elements of health resort interventions in health resorts are balneotherapy, hydrotherapy, and climatotherapy. Health resort medicine can be used for health promotion, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. The use of natural mineral waters, gases and peloids in many countries is called balneotherapy, but other (equivalent) terms exist. Substances used for balneotherapy are medical mineral waters, medical peloids, and natural gases (bathing, drinking, inhalation, etc.). The use of plain water (tap water) for therapy is called hydrotherapy, and the use of climatic factors for therapy is called climatotherapy. Reflecting the effects of health resort medicine, it is important to take other environmental factors into account. These can be classified within the framework of the ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health). Examples include receiving health care by specialised doctors, being well educated (ICF-domain: e355), having an environment supporting social contacts (family, peer groups) (cf. ICF-domains: d740, d760), facilities for recreation, cultural activities, leisure and sports (cf. ICF-domain: d920), access to a health-promoting atmosphere and an environment close to nature (cf. ICF-domain: e210). The scientific field dealing with health resort medicine is called health resort sciences. It includes the medical sciences, psychology, social sciences, technical sciences, chemistry, physics, geography, jurisprudence, etc. Finally, this paper proposes a systematic international discussion of descriptions in the field of Health Resort Medicine, Balneology, Medical Hydrology and Climatology, and discusses short descriptive terms with the goal of achieving internationally accepted distinct terms. This task should be done via a structured consensus process and is of major importance for the publication of scientific results as well as for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

[The precautionary principle: advantages and risks].

PubMed

Tubiana, M

2001-04-01

The extension of the precautionary principle to the field of healthcare is the social response to two demands of the population: improved health safety and the inclusion of an informed public in the decision-making process. The necessary balance between cost (treatment-induced risk) and benefit (therapeutic effect) underlies all healthcare decisions. An underestimation or an overestimation of cost, i.e. risk, is equally harmful in public healthcare. A vaccination should be prescribed when its beneficial effect outweighs its inevitable risk. Mandatory vaccination, such as in the case of the Hepatitis B virus, is a health policy requiring some courage because those who benefit will never be aware of its positive effect while those who are victims of the risk could resort to litigation. Defense against such accusations requires an accurate assessment of risk and benefit, which underlines the importance of expertise. Even within the framework of the precautionary principle, it is impossible to act without knowledge, or at least a plausible estimation, of expected effects. Recent affairs (blood contamination, transmissible spongiform encephalitis by growth hormone, and new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease) illustrate that in such cases the precautionary principle would have had limited impact and it is only when enough knowledge was available that effective action could be taken. Likewise, in current debates concerning the possible risks of electromagnetic fields, cellular phones and radon, research efforts must be given priority. The general public understands intuitively the concept of cost and benefit. For example, the possible health risks of oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy were not ignored, but the public has judged that their advantages justify the risk. Estimating risk and benefit and finding a balance between risk and preventive measures could help avoid the main drawbacks of the precautionary principle, i.e. inaction and refusal of innovation, highly restrictive administrative procedures, and a waste of funds on the search for the utopian goal of zero risk. Other drawbacks are more insidious. The precautionary principle could contribute to a general feeling of anxiety and unease in the population. It could be used by campaigns to manipulate public opinion in favor of a particular commercial interest or ideology. Furthermore, practitioners and public policy makers could be led to make choices not dictated by a search for the optimal solution but rather a solution that would protect them from future accusations (the so-called umbrella phenomenon). On the international level, the precautionary principle must not be used to mask protectionism. Nevertheless, a clear advantage of the precautionary principle is that it requires decision-makers to explain the rationale behind their decisions, to quantify the risks, and to provide objective information. However, the physician must not be tempted to make patients sign documents certifying that they have been given all relevant information on his or her diagnosis and treatment. This example underlines the role of legal texts and jurisprudence in the application of the precautionary principle. Finally, the precautionary principle implies new obligations for the State. In the field of health and healthcare, the State must undertake actions based on fully open and undisguised decision-making and provide complete information to the public. A pplication of the precautionary principle requires much discernment because the final outcome can be beneficial or harmful, depending on the way it is implemented. The precautionary principle, and its applications, must be precise and detailed within a well-defined framework.

[Conclusions. The precautionary principle: its advantages and risks].

PubMed

Tubiana, M

2000-01-01

The proposed extension to health of the precautionary principle is the reaction to two social demands: the desire for greater health safety and for more transparency in the decision making process by associating the public. In medical care, all decisions are based on the balance between cost (dangers induced by the treatment) and benefit (the therapeutic effect). It is as dangerous to overestimate the cost, in other words the risks, as it is to underestimate them. The same problem is encountered in public health. If a vaccination is to be prescribed, the beneficial effects must outweigh the risks; however, these risks are inevitable and have been known to exist since the 18th century, but they have been accepted for the public good. It takes courage to make a vaccination mandatory because those who benefit from it will never know, while those who suffer from its ill effects could take legal action. In order to counter accusations, an evaluation must be made beforehand of the risks and benefits, which underlines the important role of expert opinion. Within the framework of the precautionary principle, actions cannot be taken in ignorance and, at the very least, plausible estimations must be made. The analysis of several recent events (contaminated blood, BSE, growth hormone and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease) shows that the precautionary principle would have had a very limited impact and that only once there was sufficient knowledge was action made possible. The same is true concerning current debates (the possible risks associated with electromagnetic fields, mobile phones and radon); in these three cases, no country in the world has invoked the precautionary principle, but rather the priority has been given to research. The public understands quite readily the cost/benefit relationship. In the case of oral contraceptives, or hormone replacement therapy the public was aware of their possible health risks but judged that the advantages outweighed the risks. The estimation of risks and benefits, the putting into proper perspective the possible risks that can be incurred from any given action, enables the main pitfalls of the precautionary principle to be avoided: the opposition to progress and the refusal of innovation, ever greater bureaucracy, and the waste of funds in the pursuit of an utopian "zero risk". Other drawbacks are more insidious: increased anxiety in the population, the manipulation of opinion by campaigns fomented by commercial or ideological interests, the influencing of practitioners and decision-makers to choose not the best solution but rather the one that will protect them from any future accusations. At the international level, efforts must be made to avoid that the precautionary principle be used for protectionist reasons. Nevertheless, the precautionary principle can have advantages, such as motivating decision-makers in the public or private sector to explain and quantify their reasoning, and to give objective information. However, the medical practitioner should not be tempted to ask that documents be signed as proof of the information given. This example underlines the possible dangers of the strict application of the law in certain cases and the importance of the role of jurisprudence. The precautionary principle will also impose new obligations on the State, which also must conform to the requirements of proportionality between risk and action, transparency and information in the field of care and health. The application of the precautionary principle will require good judgment because the way it is implemented will determine whether its outcome will be for the better or the worse. That is why it is indispensable that jurists, medical practitioners, and scientists work together so that the precautionary principle will be as precisely defined and codified as possible.

[Differences in psychiatric expertise of responsibility for schizophrenic persons accused of murder: Study with experts of the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence].

PubMed

Guivarch, J; Piercecchi-Marti, M-D; Glezer, D; Chabannes, J-M

2016-08-01

In France, forensic psychiatric assessment plays a central role in the relationship between psychiatry and justice. The psychiatric expert is commissioned to determine whether or not the accused has a mental disorder and to specify whether or not it affected discernment at the time of offense. Nowadays, psychiatric expertise is coming under more and more criticism, particularly regarding divergences between experts. Our objectives were to find points of divergence between experts, try to understand causes and suggest ways to try to reduce them. For this we conducted a study, between July 2012 and January 2013, with psychiatric experts of the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence through semi-structured interviews. We focused on a limited context: psychiatric expertise of responsibility for schizophrenic persons accused of murder. We questioned the experts about the issue of criminal liability of a person with schizophrenia in general but also in clinical situations we thought particularly involved in disagreements. We recruited a population of 17 psychiatrists, mostly males of average age of 58 years, working mostly in the department of adult psychiatry of a hospital. We highlighted the differences between the experts, first with regards to the issue of liability in general. Experts divided seemed to keep in majority (52.9 %) the alternative between abolition and alteration of discernment when faced with a schizophrenic person accused of murder. The differences were even more pronounced in specific contexts. Thus, the fact that the person had suffered from delirium at the time of the offense led half of the experts (47.1 %) to conclude a systematic abolition of discernment, while the other half made such a conclusion when the delirium was directly linked to the facts. Discontinuation of neuroleptic treatment, drug abuse or existence of premeditation changed the conclusions of the experts in half the cases, more in the sense of an increased accountability in the cases of drug abuse or premeditation, and in the direction of a reduction of liability in case of cessation of treatment. The denial of facts by the accused caused fewer disagreements between experts. Among experts, 76.5 % had already observed differences, which, according to them, were based primarily on schools of thought, or personal views (64.7 %), which could distort clinical evaluation and especially forensic interpretation of the relationship between pathology and facts. The experts thought it was possible and desirable to reduce differences and proposed different solutions for this, especially the return to dual expertise and colleges of experts. Our results were consistent with those in the literature. Based on proposals from experts and data from the literature, we identified five perspectives likely to reduce differences: first it would be useful to put in place a better specific training in forensic psychiatry and expertise, not only theoretical but also in terms of practical training through tutoring. We would identify a jurisprudence in forensic psychiatric assessment and identify consensual points. It would be good to allow experts to acquire sufficient experience not just through tutorials but also by statutory changes. Moments of exchange between experts - including a return to dual expertise and the organization of work meeting - could also reduce differences. Finally, we propose legislative changes: not only to rewrite the paragraph 2 of Article 122-1 of the French Penal Code, but also to give priority to the expertise of responsibility on the expertise of dangerousness. We showed that there were differences between the experts mainly concerned with the forensic interpretation, and that they seemed linked to schools of thought or to personal views of each expert. To reduce the differences, we discussed five perspectives. Copyright © 2015 L’Encéphale, Paris. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.