The special case of property rights in umbilical cord blood for transplantation

In this Article, Professor Stephen R. Munzer makes a case for limited property rights in umbilical cord blood. Professor Munzer proposes that the unique nature of cord blood distinguishes it from body wastes and qualifies it as a body part in which property rights vest. Employing a theory of property, based in part on the articulation of the principles of utility and efficiency, justice and equality, and "labor-desert," he explores legal and philosophical arguments that justify the acknowledgment of such rights. He also discusses concerns over alleged generous granting of patents in the area of cord blood stem cells in light of these principles. Significant aspects of health policy are explored with particular focus on the potential value of using cord blood to treat various diseases and disorders. Professor Munzer discusses various difficult cases involving the exercise of property rights in umbilical cord blood with respect to the interests and/or motives of newborns, parents, and other parties. He argues that some of the concerns associated with the commercialization and commodification of cord blood are not serious enough to warrant significant barriers to market exchanges of property rights in cord blood. In addition, he concludes that the particular nature and harvesting of cord blood do not make its commodification morally problematic. Finally, Professor Munzer reinforces his treatment of property rights in cord blood by addressing objections that view property as "propriety," as a pragmatic institution, or as social relations.     

Racially conditional donation: the example of umbilical cord blood

While direction of donated tissue to family members has long been accepted, direction to members of specific racial groups has been opposed, on the basis that it is discriminatory and contrary to the ethos the institution of organ donation seeks to promote. It has, however, recently been proposed that racially conditional donation may provide a useful--and ethically acceptable--way to address the social inequalities and injustices experienced by certain cultural groups. This article examines the ethical, legal and cultural arguments for and against racially conditional donation, concluding that the practice is more likely to undermine the values of equity and justice than to promote them and that it may also lead to other unfavourable personal and social outcomes.     

"Body property": challenging the ethical barriers in organ transplantation to protect individual autonomy

One of two articles related to the current organ shortage, this article advocates the need for legislation to recognize organs and tissues separated from the body as a distinct category of personal property. After addressing the legislative history of organ procurement and psychological barriers to donor consent, the article examines the importance of separating the lifetime rights of ownership in our own bodies from postmortem rights. Ultimately, the author proposes a futures market approach to this problem in which individuals before death, or surviving family members after death, are permitted sell the decedent's organs in a private contract.     

Spontaneous umbilical cord hematoma: an unusual cause of fetal mortality: a report of 3 cases and review of the literature

Spontaneous hematoma of the umbilical cord represents a rare cause of fetal morbidity and mortality and the outcome is poor in half of the cases. There are many risk factors, such as infections, morphologic anomalies, alterations of the vessel walls, prolapses, twisting and traction of the cord, but in many cases the causes remain unknown. We present 3 cases of umbilical cord hematoma which took place at the end of the pregnancy and were followed by perinatal death of the fetus. In the 3 cases, which were autopsied including macroscopical and histopathologic examination of the placenta and the umbilical cord, a cordonal pathology was present; in all cases, there were alterations of the vascular wall, and in the third case inflammatory vasculopathy was found. In all 3 cases, the cause of death was attributed to acute anoxia due to the cordonal hematoma.     

Lengthening the stem: allowing federally funded researchers to derive human pluripotent stem cells from embryos

Recent developments in fetal tissue research and stem cell research have led to dramatic breakthroughs in the search for cures for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and a host of neurological disorders. Because this research involves fetal tissue and stem cells from human embryos, many complicated ethical and legal implications surround it. This Note explores the history of fetal tissue research and stem cell research, examines the surrounding ethical and legal issues, looks at the current state of federal law, and concludes that Congress should allow federally funded researchers to derive stem cells from discarded human embryos obtained from in vitro fertilization clinics.     

Efficiency in Banking: Empirical Evidence from the Czech Republic

The paper examines the cost efficiency of the Czech-banking system in the 1990s by applying the distribution free approach model. Reported results indicate that foreign banks were on average more efficient than the other banks, although their efficiency was comparable with the ‘good’ small banks’ efficiency in early years of their operation. Based on the estimated results it is argued that early privatisation of state-owned commercial banks and more liberal policy towards foreign banks in the early stage of transition would have enhanced the efficiency in the banking system.     

The ethical, legal and social implications of umbilical cord blood banking: learning important lessons from the protection of human genetic information

Internationally networked umbilical cord blood banks hold great promise for better clinical outcomes, but also raise a host of potential ethical and legal concerns. There is now significant accumulated experience in Australia and overseas with regard to the establishment of human genetic research databases and tissue collections, popularly known as "biobanks". For example, clear lessons emerge from the controversies that surrounded, stalled or derailed the establishment of some early biobanks, such as Iceland's deCODE, Autogen's Tonga database, a proposed biobank in Newfoundland, Canada, and the proposed Taiwan biobank. More recent efforts in the United Kingdom, Japan, Quebec and Tasmania have been relatively more successful in generating public support, recognising the critical need for openness and transparency, and ample public education and debate, in order to build community acceptance and legitimacy. Strong attention must be paid to ensuring that other concerns--about privacy, discrimination, informed consent, governance, security, commercial fairness and financial probity--are addressed in structural terms and monitored thereafter, in order to maintain public confidence and avoid a backlash that inevitably would imperil such research. Once lost, credibility is very difficult to restore.     

No conflict, no interest: on the economics of conflicts of interest faced by analysts

This paper outlines evolution of the policy response to conflicts of interest analysts face in offering investment advice to investors when the company they follow may also buy merchant banking services from their employer. Both in the US and the UK on a both statutory and common law basis the response has been one of to disclose and let market participants price the implied conflict or simply rebut the advice given. An efficient market can price conflicts and by implication unravel any potential damage to shareholder wealth induced by analysts’ conflicts of interests in this view. I consider the impact the presence of “noise traders” in financial markets may have on the welfare implications of this sort of policy stance. The presence of noise traders casts doubt on the benign impact of conflicts of interest in financial markets. In particular the presence of noise induced variance in analyst’s forecasts implies disclosure based remedies may be ineffective in mitigating the harm of analyst’s conflicts of interest.     

论银行账户资金的权利属性——横向公司诉冶金公司、汉口支行案之理论评析

存款人对银行账户资金即存款享有所有权,这是物权价值化的必然结果,也是物权与债权相区分的必然要求.因此,存款合同在性质上属于资金保管与转移资金利用权的混合合同;存款人与银行之间的法律关系并非是债权人与债务人之间的关系,而是所有权人与利用权人之间的关系.     

“软法”与“软组织”——对巴塞尔银行监管体制的再认识

巴塞尔委员会通过发布一系列软法性质的巴塞尔协议推动各国金融监管机构的合作，在促进各国监管规则的协调方面发挥了巨大作用。相较于传统国际法中的以政府间国际组织和条约为中心的运作模式，巴塞尔监管体制的运作方式是比较独特的。一方面，巴塞尔委员会取得的成就与其软组织性有很大关系；另一方面，巴塞尔委员会的软组织性与寡头俱乐部的实质又决定了它在国际金融监管领域所能发挥的作用有很大局限性。     

Physicians' conflicts of interest in Japan and the United States: lessons for the United States

Japanese health policy shows that even with physician ownership and the absence of for-profit, investor-owned health care, physicians' conflicts of interest thrive. Physician dispensing of drugs and ownership of hospitals and clinics were justified in Japan as ways to avoid commercialization of medicine. Instead, they create physicians' conflicts and fuel patient overuse of services. Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) has responded by introducing per-diem payment, thereby creating incentives to decrease services in ways similar to those of American managed care organizations, but with none of their benefits, such as coordination of care, oversight of physicians practices, and quality assurance. Although the United States and Japanese health care systems are organized and financed differently there is convergence in the source of their physicians' conflicts and the way they are addressed. The United States is starting to integrate institutional and physician payment and align their incentives, in a traditional Japanese way. In so doing, the United States creates new physicians' conflicts and reduces the role of countervailing incentives and power, an advantage of previous policy. Japan, in turn, has combined incentives to increase and decrease services, thus moving closer to the U.S. policy.