Journal of law and health最新文献

This paper considers the regulatory reality of sports equipment that is at the center of this brain trauma in sports issue. It reveals that not all regulation concerning athletic head injuries occurs in the public sector. It goes on to explain that in the case of sports helmets, very little is performed by the government and explains how the private sector executes this regulation instead. Protective equipment (helmets, by and large) are regulated, or more precisely, "quasi-regulated" by a structure defined largely by private technical standards. This paper offers an introduction to these standards and explains the key elements and differences between the private regulatory models for helmets. It also evaluates the effectiveness of standards-based regulation of athletic headgear and concludes with recommendations for adjustments to the existing conformity assessment systems and undertakings by the helmet standards community that would serve the end of providing excellent private regulation for equipment that faces the serious challenge of reducing brain injury in sports.

In Part II, I present a legal challenge to the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) from an administrative law perspective. While I share sympathies with those who believe PDUFA represents an unacceptable conflict of interest for the FDA, I posit arguments purely from the framework of permissible administrative agency discretion so as to avoid ambivalent analytical and empirical arguments. My argument is that given the statutory and case law determinations of permissible federal agency discretion, the FDA cannot assess a flat user fee for widely variable types of services it renders during the drug approval process. Thus, the current implementation of PDUFA is legally impermissible. Subsequently, in Part III, I compare PDUFA to three other agency user-fee mechanisms and propose specific improvements to PDFUA to minimize its conflict of interest while maintaining its revenue efficiency.

This article considers in Part II the status and influence of public health research regarding the safety risks of gladiator sports and the field's tendency to neglect the sports' recognized medical and mental health benefits. In Part III, the historical trends in judicial interpretation of the scope of the criminal consent defense and civil doctrines of a privilege of consent to assault and assumption of the risk in the sports context are addressed. Finally, Part IV asserts the need to reform the civil and criminal defenses to intentional misconduct in sports through agency, judicial, and statutory reform, for the purpose of eliminating the strategic use of the intentional foul to better enforce the new medically informed safety regulations and sports rules while protecting the tradition of a wide array of gladiator sports.

This article examines three facets of the pregnant prisoner prenatal and post-birth care issue. First, it examines the injustice that pregnant prisoners are subjected to. Next, it examines other states' statutory regimes to identify adequate and inadequate features. Specifically, it examines the Pennsylvania regime because of its relevance and reputation for being the most accommodating to these women. Finally, it proposes a statutory regime for Ohio that provides mandatory care standards, means of accomplishing mandatory care, penalties for both the institution and its individual actors when care is not provided--and shows how a statutory regime without these changes puts mothers and their unborn children at risk for poor treatment, even death, like Pamela.

Media coverage surrounding the New York City Department of Health's recent portion-cap on sugary beverages sold in food service establishments tends to focus on public opinions regarding the role of government. Within this dialogue, there are two camps. On one hand lies the opposition; these individuals criticize the Department of Health as a "nanny state" involving itself with individual consumption choices. On the other side lay the supporters who recognize the gravity of the obesity epidemic and applaud government efforts to ameliorate its effects.

This note analyzes the "Under 12 Rule" and advocates for its abolishment by examining the consequences and discrimination faced by children under the age of twelve since its enactment in 2005 as well as the benefits stemming from the allowance of using adult lungs for pediatric transplantation. Part II discusses the history of organ transplantation law and the current organ transplantation laws as they stand. Part III provides statistical data demonstrating the disparity between pediatric lung transplant candidates and adult lung transplant candidates. Part IV discusses the reasons for the implementation of the "Under 12 Rule" and analyzes the emerging study associated with the benefits of a lung transplantation using larger lungs. Part V discusses the litigation that ensued due to the "Under 12 Rule" and the legal arguments that were raised. Part VI proposes a new regulation for the pediatric allocation of donor lungs, and Part VII concludes this Note, advocating for the abolishment of the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network's "Under 12 Rule."

The elderly population in the United States will expand drastically over the next few decades; indeed, the number of persons aged 65 or older is expected to swell to approximately 19 percent of the nation's population by 2030--a staggering statistic in light of the fact that the present population of elderly people constitutes fewer than 13 percent. Largely because of this fact, long-term care for this population is becoming increasingly important. Traditionally, elderly persons who lost the ability to fully care for themselves would enter a healthcare facility known as a nursing home. However, a relatively new alternative exists in the form of the assisted living facility ("ALF"). ALFs are the fastest growing form of residential care for the elderly. Between 1998 and the present, the total number of ALFs in the United States increased from around 11,459 to nearly 40,000. This option originated as a "market response to emerging demographic trends... and consumer demands," and as such, is expected to bear the brunt of the expected growth in elderly populations.

On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). In an effort to rebalance states' spending on long-term services and supports (LTSS) towards home care, PPACA created four new options under Medicaid with which states could provide home care services to their citizens. While PPACA's creation of these four optional Medicaid HCBS programs allows states more flexibility and the capability to provide enhanced home care services to its citizens, it falls short of completely addressing the existing institutional bias in Medicaid by failing to create a mandatory Medicaid state service plan for home care services. Part II describes home care workers, provides a legislative history of home care services, and outlines how Medicaid provides nursing facility care. Part III analyzes the shortcomings of PPACA's plan to improve access and delivery of home care services. Part IV proposes recommendations to better provide the elderly with reliable and affordable home care service.