Should Nonhuman Animals Be Recognized Legally as Persons?

This article explores the legal status of nonhuman animals used in biomedical research. While acknowledging that, presently, nonhuman animals in research settings hold no personal legal rights, this article explores what a legal person is and proposes that it is possible for nonhuman animals to become legal persons and receive better protections under the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Digital Manipulation of Images of Models' Appearance in Advertising: Strategies for Action Through Law and Corporate Social Responsibility Incentives to Protect Public Health.

Context: Widespread digital retouching of advertising imagery in the fashion, beauty, and other consumer industries promotes unrealistic beauty standards that have harmful effects on public health. In particular, exposure to misleading beauty imagery is linked with greater body dissatisfaction, worse mood, poorer self-esteem, and increased risk for disordered eating behaviors. Moreover, given the social, psychological, medical, and economic burden of eating disorders, there is an urgent need to address environmental risk factors and to scale up prevention efforts by increasing the regulation of digitally altered advertising imagery.

Expert Witness Training for Geriatric Medicine Fellows Using Courtroom Simulation.

Introduction: Familiarity with courtroom proceedings is essential for physicians before their first appearance as expert witnesses. Geriatricians who care for vulnerable older adults may be called to testify in guardianship hearings and cases involving elder abuse and contested wills. Coverage of this topic is limited in the medical literature.

Attention Deficit Disorder and the Americans With Disabilities Act: Is Anyone Paying Attention?

As millions of individuals who have been given a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder enter the workforce, more individuals with these mental impairments are filing claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as amended in 2008 by the ADA Amendments Act. The ADA forbids employment discrimination based on an individual's disability and also requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. Health care managers must be well prepared with knowledge of the employers' rights and responsibilities under the law.

Rate of false conviction of criminal defendants who are sentenced to death.

The rate of erroneous conviction of innocent criminal defendants is often described as not merely unknown but unknowable. There is no systematic method to determine the accuracy of a criminal conviction; if there were, these errors would not occur in the first place. As a result, very few false convictions are ever discovered, and those that are discovered are not representative of the group as a whole.

Preemption of the "fraud on the FDA" exception to Michigan's tort immunity statute for drug manufacturers: reconsidering Garcia and Desiano after Levine.

In Buckman v. Plaintiff's Legal Committee, the Supreme Court of the United States held that "fraud on FDA" claims in medical device products liability actions were impliedly preempted by the Medical Device Amendments to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). A Michigan statute that provides a complete regulatory compliance defense for drug manufacturers, absent a finding that the manufacturer defrauded or bribed the FDA.

From Research Conclusions to Real Change: Understanding the First Amendment's (Non)Response to the Negative Effects of Media on Children by Looking to the Example of Violent Video Game Regulations.

Through the careful examination of a case taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2010 Term, Schwarzenegger v.

Natural disaster, unnatural deaths: the killings on the life care floors at Tenet's Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina.

This article examines the meaning of the killing of four patients with disabilities on the Life Care ward of Tenet's Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans in anticipation of hurricane Katrina. None were terminally ill. None were in pain.