Abortion, breast cancer, and informed consent

The purpose of this article is to show that the current level of scientific evidence linking induced abortion with increased breast cancer risk is sufficient to support an ethical and legal duty to disclose fully the risk to women who are considering induced abortion. The article examines the relationship between this evidence and the elements of a medical malpractice claim alleging failure to obtain informed consent. The first part focuses on the elements of informed consent, which require the plaintiff to establish that the physician had a duty to disclose information, which he failed to disclose, that this failure to disclose was a legal cause of the plaintiff's decision to undergo the procedure, and the procedure was a legal cause of the plaintiff's injury. The second part compares two prevalent standards for determining which risks a physician has a duty to disclose. Part three reviews the scientific evidence of the abortion/breast cancer (ABC) link and explains why it survives both the Frye and the Daubert tests for admissibility of expert testimony. The fourth part assesses the materiality of the risk posed by the ABC link. Parts five and six discuss evidentiary issues and the possibility of punitive damage awards.     

Individual rights,collective interests,public law,and American politics

The author completed this article while on leave as a Visiting Fellow of New College, Oxford, on a grant from the George A. and Eliza Howard Foundation of Brown University. He wishes to acknowledge his debts to these institutions as well as to Christopher Wolfe, Daniel Robinson, William C. Porth, John Finnis, and the anonymous referee, all of whom criticized earlier drafts and offered valuable suggestions.     

从海盗赎金的双重性质看船东与货主的博弈

船东遭受的索马里海盗赎金损失,同时符合海难救助和共同海损的构成要件。从船东单方利益看,船东支付赎金的行为是海难救助,但此主张无法使船东从海难救助制度中获益。若主张共同海损,船东可从船舶保险中获赔,获得共同海损的多种担保方式,对无法从货主处实现的共同海损分摊可从船东保赔协会获得补偿,甚至船货同属一人时,该主张亦成立,这符合船东的利益;从船货利益的一致性看,这符合船东与货主的共同利益;从行业特征来看,作为海上运输的参与者和受益者,货主与船东一起分担海上风险,这符合海运业发展的客观要求。共同海损的主张是船货双方利益博弈的结果,体现了海商法为平衡船货利益和维护海运业发展在这背后所进行的调整。     

Abortion in Israel: Community, Rights, and the Context of Compromise

In contrast to American understandings of abortion as a uniquely tragic dilemma, the Israeli abortion issue is a tangential controversy in a larger debate over the relationship between the state's national and democratic identity. The divergent paths of abortion politics in Israel and the United States reflect important differences in underlying religious doctrines, geographical size, feminist ideologies, and the immediacy of other social cleavages. More profoundly, the two abortion stories are the product of distinct understandings of the mutual obligations between citizens and their state and of the relationship between individual and collective rights and duties. While these differences may account for the capacity of Israeli activists on both sides to forge pragmatic compromises, the stability of these policies is uncertain both because of changing Israeli priorities and the import of American conceptions of the abortion dispute.     

Patriarchy,Abortion, and the Criminal System: Policing Female Bodies

This paper argues for a broader consideration of the issue of abortion—one that stresses the centrality of the denial of reproductive rights in the patriarchal policing of women’s bodies and their sexuality. Globally, the estimates of abortion-related deaths in 2014 ranged from 22,500 to 44,000, and countless women are injured or left infertile by seeking illegal abortions. We briefly review international trends regarding abortion politics and then analyze closely women’s access to abortion in two countries: the United States and Bangladesh. Representing two very different contexts of the developed and the developing world, respectively, we contend that abortion services are being constrained by misogynistic politics that deny women control over their bodies. Finally, the paper reviews recent international efforts to establish abortion rights as part of a broader landscape of human rights. Notably, while there are some efforts in the global north to recriminalize both contraception and abortion, these practices have been characterized by a recent United Nation’s report as the deliberate denial of medically available and necessary services and hence a form of “torture.”     

Parents and medical professionals: conflict, cooperation, and best interests

Abstract This paper seeks to engage with the ideas expressed by Professor Brazier in her commentary on the Charlotte Wyatt case and to develop contemporary analysis around parental rights, notions of best interests, and shared decision-making between parents and professionals. The article begins by setting the scene in relation to parental/professional conflict and frames the discussion in the context of medical decision-making. Parental rights are then explored before the analysis progresses to how the concept of best interests has recently developed. Finally, the article investigates the benefits of compromise, cooperation, and shared decision-making as the most effective method for resolving disputes concerning children.