This paper argues that rectificatory justice should supplement distributive justice in allocating priority of access to scarce medical resources. Where a patient is at fault for the scarcity of healthy organs a principle of restitution requires that she should give priority to the faultless. Such restitution is non-punitive, and is ...

Legally, the concept of fitness to stand trial is fixed and absolute. Psychiatrists view fitness as a homeostatic functional capacity. The Ontario Court of Appeal recently set a precedent (Queen versus Taylor) for a standard of fitness to stand trial by interpreting the criteria for unfitness as defined in terms ...

Blood transfusion has been doctrinally forbidden for Jehovah's Witnesses since 1945. Despite serious theologic consequences for its violation, this proscription may not be observed universally by members of the denomination. When a patient declines a lifesaving transfusion, a conflict is generated between the physician's autonomy-based and beneficence-based obligations to the ...

The present state of the art and the state of practice regarding legal aspects of medical informatics are reported. Examples are taken from networking, archiving, and virtual reality. It is derived that the data protection concepts of the seventies are covering only some legal aspects of the application scene today ...

An increasing body of molecular information resulting from advances in basic research is being incorporated into clinical practice by medical genetics. The process by which these research advances progress from the laboratory to the bedside and their medical, social, and legal impact is a topic of intense current interest. Some ...

Transsexuals pose dilemmas for the law in (a) defining a male or a female; (b) deciding what partners are legally acceptable for marriage; (c) assessing the best interests of children after divorce; (d) interpreting employment discrimination based on gender or handicap; (e) permitting public cross dressing; (f) reviewing third-party reimbursement ...

Forensic photography, although similar to medical photography, has different aims, and different objectives. The main consideration is that the images are taken primarily for legal reasons, therefore the results must be accurate and detailed, and of use in court. The photographer must have an understanding of the technical requirements as ...

Alcohol-related misconduct poses a challenge for society, the legal system, and the medical profession. The debate is centered on alcohol abuse and the determination of responsibility for misbehavior. In assessing responsibility, the legal system often requests the expertise of the medical professional. The knowledgeable clinician can contribute to the just ...

To ensure the success of collaborative arrangements between Catholic and non-Catholic organizations, Catholic providers are advised to look at Church law in canonical and civil documents and at the role of Church law in arrangements between parties. First, Catholic healthcare providers should identify persons subject to Church law as they ...

This article presents an overview of several major legal issues in contemporary prehospital health care delivery and emergency medical services. It includes review and analysis of medical-legal issues in medical control; patient consent and treatment; modern emergency medical services communications; discussion of medical-legal concerns in regard to patient destination choice, ...

The United States Supreme Court, in the recent case of Riggins v. Nevada, extended its examination of the issue of involuntary treatment with anti-psychotic medication to the mentally disabled facing criminal trial. Although this was an extreme case where the defendant faced a possible death sentence, the involuntary administration of ...

Domestic and world opinion is gradually changing towards the idea of tolerating or even legalizing active euthanasia. The implications of this are examined using Foulke's concept of the 'levels' in group discussions. Psychiatrists have a unique experience in using the statutory mental health legislation, in addition to the ordinary law, ...

Brain death has been discussed extensively for the last 25 years. Most investigators now believe that requiring death of the entire brain as the criterion for brain death in the Uniform Determination of Death Act and the standard clinical tests of brain death outlined in the Report of the Medical ...

In a far-reaching decision about scientific evidence in federal cases handed down at the very end of the 1992-1993 term, the U.S. Supreme Court implicated medical practice guidelines in indirect, profound, yet highly uncertain ways. In Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc the Court ruled that judges must actively screen ...

A struggle is going on all over the world between medical paternalism and patient autonomy. The battlegrounds include clinics, hospitals, academic settings and the courts. The High Court has awarded the most recent round, six to nothing, to autonomy, but the fight is by no means over. The judgements, the ...

OBJECTIVE: There exist, in many jurisdictions, confusion and uncertainty with regard to the legal duty of pharmacists to warn their patients of the potential risks of their medication. Review of the legal evolution of this duty in one state with recent experience is instructive. DATA SOURCES: Published opinions of the ...

The High Court judgment states explicitly that your duty to disclose will now be measured by a legal standard. Gaudron J states: "... there is simply no occasion to consider the practice or practices of medical practitioners in determining what information should be supplied ..." Thus the court in dismissing ...

The paper is concerned, in the main, with selective non-treatment of those incapable of making treatment decisions of their own. It draws attention to the conflict between the law and the medical profession in this field which was predicted some ten years ago and traces the British case law from ...

In recent years, advances in medical science have left the legal community with a wide array of social, ethical, and legal problems previously unimaginable. Historically, legislative and judicial responses to these advances lagged behind the rapid pace of such developments. The gap between the scientist's question, "Can we do it?," ...

Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of litigation addressing an employer's right to unilaterally amend or terminate medical benefits provided to retirees. The sheer volume of these cases and the variety of facts and legal theories have combined to obscure the patterns and trends that actually are ...

Recently, the 1850 commitment law in Belgium has undergone dramatic revisions. These changes were implemented mainly at the request of law reformers who were concerned about the implications for civil liberties of institutionalization and who took into account the modern psychiatric treatment successes. Despite the fact that this legislation has ...

Prevailing liberal rules of evidence permit qualified medical and scientific experts to offer opinions designed to help courts decide issues to which their expertise relates. The opinions can be based on direct examinations, review of data assembled by others and data or inferences of a type relied on by other ...

Little is known about the qualifications and motives of pediatricians who provide expert witness testimony. Pediatricians in Pennsylvania were surveyed anonymously to learn more about this practice. Two hundred fifty-five (49%) of 520 pediatricians responded, and 126 of these physicians had provided expert testimony at some time. Fully affiliated medical ...

The legalization of euthanasia, both in the Netherlands and in other countries is usually justified in reference to the right to autonomy of patients. Utilizing recent Dutch jurisprudence, this article intends to show that the judicial proceedings on euthanasia in the Netherlands have not so much enhanced the autonomy of ...

An audit of one insurance company's files on all employer's liability and third party motor claims settled over two years for 5000 pounds or more presented an opportunity to review the medical reports on the patients involved. A stratified random sample of files on 203 patients contained 602 reports prepared ...

Doctors who have to give evidence in cases of physical or sexual child abuse usually find it a stressful experience. Factors that may help to improve the doctor's ability to cope with the situation are discussed in this article. The importance of good medical notes and a good medical examination ...

Federal and state enforcement agencies have increased their scrutiny of hospitals to make certain they are complying with anti-dumping law. Medical record practitioners can assist their institutions by providing policies that require appropriate documentation of compliance. Given the potential sanctions imposed by anti-dumping laws, these policies should be reviewed carefully ...

Doctors in New Zealand may be prosecuted for manslaughter if patients die as a consequence of the doctor's failure to exercise reasonable knowledge, skill and care. The requirement to use reasonable knowledge, skill and care has been held to be breached in New Zealand if a doctor is merely careless. ...

This study reviews the legal status of state medical malpractice damage limitations or "caps" now being challenged regularly on federal and state constitutional grounds. The case law resulting from the many state tort damage control laws passed during the mid-1980s in response to the "tort-insurance" crisis is examined, and the ...

The interface between medicine and the law is an area which demands further investigation. There can be no criminal capability for an act unless the perpetrator had both the will to so act and the capacity to differentiate and choose whether or not to conform the particular behaviour to that ...

This is the first time that an issue related to the provision of medical information or advice has been argued before the High Court of Australia. As with any decision of the High Court, there will always be supporters and protagonists. However, one of the benefits of having the High ...

Joseph Finelli, after a heart transplant, is being artificially maintained by medications and a gastrostomy tube (G-tube). He is not brain dead nor in a persistent vegetative state. In my role as court-appointed Guardian ad Litem (GAL-court investigator), it appears to me that Mr. Finelli is being treated against his ...

Participating in a medical/legal situation is quite different from the ordinary office or hospital experience and requires the expert to see that all of the new parameters are clarified. A thorough and complete evaluation with a review of all the pertinent records and interviews with ancillary individuals is necessary, as ...

This survey of 1,097 Fellows resulted in usable data from 336 surgeons, of whom 129 had claims (n = 212) against them from January 1, 1984, through December 31, 1989. Risk by specialty varied greatly, but population of practice area seemed unimportant. Plaintiff expert witnesses could be identified by 28 ...

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, we examine the effect of the legal status of coresidential unions on the likelihood of dissolution. We find that legal unions are much more stable than nonlegal unions. In addition, current legal status is more important ...

In Summit Health Ltd. v. Pinhas, the United States Supreme Court by a narrow majority found that the exclusion of an ophthalmologist from a hospital in Los Angeles had a sufficient effect on interstate commerce to establish federal jurisdiction under the Sherman Act. In resolving a split among the federal ...

With the rise in the number of medical negligence claims over the last decade the demand on doctors to act as medical experts has correspondingly increased. This article reviews the criteria necessary to be a credible expert witness and gives guidance on writing a report that will stand the test ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the characteristics of cases of drug treatment refusal under the Rivers decision, which mandated court adjudication of such cases, the authors made a retrospective study of all applications for court review during 1 year in New York State inpatient facilities. METHOD: Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of these ...

Holmes is concerned with a conflict between law and medicine about the problem of psychopathy, in particular as it relates to homicide. He looks for a consistent set of legal principles based on a variety of medical concepts and in doing so criticises the court for its commonsense approach, its ...

As focus on the insanity defense diminishes, defendants may place emphasis on a lack of knowing or purposeful behavior in order to negate a criminal charge. This use of a mens rea defense in accord with Model Penal Code principles is exemplified by the current New Jersey statute. Such a ...

Even the most casual observer of medical-legal litigation knows that such disputes take a long time to resolve, cost too much, and often leave parties no better off than before. Litigation also has deleterious effects where the parties have an ongoing relationship outside the courtroom. Such problems plague all litigation, ...

In July 1865, the Harris/Burroughs trial marked the first time in a U.S. courtroom that expert medical testimony supported a plea of paroxysmal [temporary] insanity in a murder defense. Furthermore, the "medical expert" ["mad doctor"] was pitted against "common-sense" physicians. Forensic rationales and societal reactions of the 1860s appear to ...

The ethical rule of medical confidentiality is not sacrosanct, for a doctor may be ordered by a court of law to make disclosures against his patients wishes. While this may assist in justice being done, it also raises the question of whether sufficient regard is paid to a patient's right ...

New procedures, tailored after such court decisions as Rogers v. Commissioner of the Department of Mental Health, have restricted the doctor's ability to treat psychiatric inpatients with psychotropic medication and have increased the protection of a competent patient's right to refuse. This study investigates how the relationship between the doctor ...

There is a perception in some quarters that courts too often, in the interest of compensating victims, find the medical profession at fault for 'failed medical care' which does not amount to negligence. If this were true, judges would likely make liberal use of the evidentiary rules res ipsa loquitur. ...

The following note considers the complex case of Perry v. Louisiana, in which the Louisiana Supreme Court ordered an insane defendant on death row to be medicated against his will in order to render him sane, and therefore capable of being executed. In so doing the court pit judicial interests ...

This Article examines the issues and questions which underlie the debate over the admission of "medical treatises" into evidence. The admissibility of this type of evidence is at issue most often in litigation involving complex medico-legal issues. This article outlines the evidentiary basis for admission of medical treatises and discusses ...

The diagnostic performance of the expert system EVINCE was compared with that of 85 clinicians in diagnosing 10 patients suspected of suffering from dementia. A multidisciplinary expert committee provided a standard diagnosis as reference for comparison. The results showed that the syndrome and etiologic diagnoses made by EVINCE were in ...

This study examined the hypothesis that the extent to which discreditations of eyewitness testimony are effective is in part a function of the strength of the basic physical and noneyewitness circumstantial evidence to which eyewitness testimony adds. Specific guilt-inducing facts were varied within each of two case contexts. In these ...

Advances in medical science have done much to improve the quality of life but in some cases medical treatment may result in the prolonging of death rather than the enhancement of life. Patients may wish to refuse or withdraw from medical treatment even though they realise that this will lead ...