Journal of health law
-
Journal of health law · Jan 2001
Glucksberg, the putative right to adequate pain relief, and death with dignity.
This Article focuses on the legality of the aggressive use of analgesics and deep sedation for terminally ill patients. The author analyzes the 1997 Supreme Court decisions on physician-assisted suicide, examines the tension between controversial palliative care practices and the traditional legal framework, and explores the contours of an emerging constitutional right to avoid suffering at the end of life. In addition, the author argues that deep sedation together with withholding of artificial nutrition and hydration should be an option for dying patients suffering from severe physical or emotional pain.
-
Journal of health law · Jan 2001
Comparative StudyLegal considerations of sleep deprivation among resident physicians.
Medical training in the United States often takes the form of a grueling endurance test in which patients are often those most at risk. This Article discusses sleep deprivation among resident physicians in the United States with an eye towards resolving the problem through legal channels. ⋯ Next, it makes comparisons to medical training in other developed nations, as well as regulations that exist in the airline and trucking industries, where public safety is a principal concern. Furthermore, this Article discusses proposals to mend the dilemmas created by sleep-deprived resident physicians through statutory and regulatory reform, deterrence by way of tort law, and unionization or collective bargaining.
-
Journal of health law · Jan 2000
EMTALA: reaching beyond the emergency room to expand hospital liability.
The Office of the Inspector General and private plaintiffs are vigorously pursuing EMTALA violations. These efforts are particularly troubling to hospitals, who face difficult statutory interpretation and application questions, especially in light of managed care reimbursement requirements. Two recent cases, one of them from the United States Supreme Court, expand hospital liability under EMTALA. This Article reviews current EMTALA standards and regulations, and analyzes how the recent decisions, in the absence of congressional action, are likely to impose substantial burdens upon hospitals.
-
In the past year, two courts have analyzed the proper standard of "willfulness" necessary to violate the anti-kickback law. At present, it appears that an intentional act, taken with knowledge that one is violating some law, is sufficient to violate the standard. It remains to be seen, however, whether the anti-kickback law will be deemed "highly technical," and thereby be violated only by one knowing that he is violating that particular statute. Moreover, the cases are not clear as to how close of nexus is required between the "knowingly violated" law and the anti-kickback law.