Concussion management in United States college sports: compliance with National Collegiate Athletic Association concussion policy and areas for improvement.

Background: In 2010, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) adopted its Concussion Policy and Legislation, which applies to more than 450,000 collegiate athletes annually. To date, there has been no examination of school-level compliance with the NCAA Concussion Policy.

Purpose: To examine whether stakeholders at NCAA schools report that their school has a concussion management plan and whether existing plans are consistent with the NCAA policy.

Jacobson v Massachusetts: it's not your great-great-grandfather's public health law.

Jacobson v Massachusetts, a 1905 US Supreme Court decision, raised questions about the power of state government to protect the public's health and the Constitution's protection of personal liberty. We examined conceptions about state power and personal liberty in Jacobson and later cases that expanded, superseded, or even ignored those ideas. Public health and constitutional law have evolved to better protect both health and human rights.

Nontherapeutic research with children: Grimes v Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Research with young children raises difficult issues of law and ethics. A recent Maryland case, Grimes v Kennedy Krieger Institute, Inc, appears to impose restrictive rules on research with children when the subjects are put at risk but cannot derive direct benefit from their involvement in the research project. This case exemplifies the tension that exists between the goal of science to increase knowledge and the protection of the rights and welfare of nonconsenting research subjects.

Case vignette: Niki goes to school -- autonomy, control, and psychiatric hospitalization.

The following is a description of a case and a discussion by professionals of the ethical issues raised. Niki turned 18 years old just 3 months ago. She is a freshman student at Central State University, where her father is also a faculty member.

The right of elderly patients to refuse life-sustaining treatment.

Some legislation, such as law permitting living wills, has addressed the problem of decisions regarding life-sustaining treatment for the elderly. Most of the developing law on the subject is, however, being made by the courts, often in prospective decisions about treatment. These rulings have followed a variety of approaches to the ends of protecting incompetent patients and enforcing the right of the competent to make their own decisions.