Medical Futility Blog

I don't know how I missed it, but here (better late than never) is a link to Prof. Thad Pope's estimable Medical Futility Blog, which does a nice job of tracking legal developments and the on-going political and scholarly debate over what to do (if anything) about claims for "futile" treatment.

Health reform: the time for happy chatter is over

Robert Samuelson -- Newsweek columnist and Washington Post op-editorialist -- had a typically fine piece in last Thursday's Post. Here's the nub of his argument:We're told that the uninsured are our biggest health-care problem, but they aren't. Runaway health spending is. although politicians pay lip service to that, what they really enjoy is increasing spending. It's understandable because

ACP publishes advance copy of major health reform policy statement

Intending to be a major player in the 2008 debate over health reform and universal coverage, the American College of Physicians has posted an advance copy of an article that will appear in its January 1, 2008, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine: "Achieving a High-Performance Health Care System with Universal Access: What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries." Full-text is available

New York City Law Review Issues Call for Papers on Health Care

The New York City Law Review announces a call for papers for its spring symposium, "Critical Condition: What's Ailing Health Care in America?" This event will be held Friday, March 28, 2008, at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York's Meeting Hall in Midtown Manhattan.The Symposium will look at two critical questions: (1) Can international human rights frameworks help the United

AHLA Health Lawyers Weekly, Nov. 30

Some interesting stuff in the Health Lawyers Weekly this time around:Top StoriesOIG Takes Back Power To Investigate Employee Criminal Conduct From FDA -- The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) will no longer share responsibility with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for investigating potential criminal misconduct by FDA employees, Inspector General

Informed consent & SCOTUS: A tale of two doctrines

Interesting paper . . .The Constitutional Right to Make Medical Treatment Decisions: A Tale of Two DoctrinesJESSIE HILL Case Western Reserve University - School of LawTexas Law Review, Vol. 86, No. 2, December 2007Case Legal Studies Research Paper No. 07-28Abstract: The Supreme Court has taken very different approaches to the question whether individuals have a right to make autonomous medical

Top Ten Health Law Stories in 2008: FDA

There's no denying either the urgency of the FDA's mess or the bipartisan political appeal of the issue of food and drug safety. Consider this lead from the New York Times' Nov. 29 article on the latest report describing the agency's woes:The nation’s food supply is at risk, its drugs are potentially dangerous and its citizens’ lives are at stake because the Food and Drug Administration is