Fatal postpartum spontaneous liver rupture: case report and literature review

Maternal hepatic rupture is a rare complication of pregnancy that can be fatal to both mother and child. This phenomenon is most often associated with preeclampsia/eclampsia and/or HELLP syndrome, which is defined by a collection of clinical features including hemolysis (H), elevated liver enzymes (EL), and a low platelet count (LP). These disease processes are typically identified and treated during pregnancy, often in the last trimester. The described case is unusual in that the decedent had no known history of preeclampsia/eclampsia or HELLP syndrome during this pregnancy, and she died suddenly several days postpartum of liver rupture with massive intraperitoneal hemorrhage following a routine cesarean section delivery and an uneventful hospital course. Similar cases are infrequent in the literature, which is reviewed in this report.     

Homeless Youth Seeking Health and Life-Meaning Through Popular Culture and the Arts

This pilot study demonstrates the roles of popular culture, media and the arts in the health and self-esteem of homeless youth. Reflecting focus group findings from a representative sample of street and sheltered youth, this article provides a qualitative assessment of what they advocated as an effective intervention that would promote the receipt of health services within their vulnerable community. Unlike alienating disease models where adverse health behaviors and outcomes determine intervention success or failure, a culturally-sensitive approach which provided skills mentoring and engaged the youth as health advocates seemed likely to produce important recovery incentives and enhanced health outcomes.     

On the Membership of Decision-Making Committees

The decision of a committee is determined jointly by the votingprocess it adopts and the composition of its membership. The paper analyses the process through which committee members emerge from the eligiblepopulation and traces the consequences of this for the decisions ofthe committee. It is shown that the equilibrium committee will becomposed of representatives from the extremes of the tastedistribution. These extremes balance each other and the committeereaches a moderate decision. However, this mutual negation by theextremes is a socially wasteful use of time. Data from the UK Houseof Lords is used to illustrate these results.     

Hybrid law and human rights – banning and behaviour orders in the appeal courts

The desire of the New Labour Government to be seen as responsive to popular concerns and moral panics over hooliganism and anti-social behaviour is resulting in the increased use of legislative responses that bridge criminal and civil law. Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and Football Banning Orders are two key examples of this ‘Hybrid Law’, imposed as a response to criminal conduct, supported by criminal law sanctions, but operating under a civil law procedure providing fewer protections for defendants. These hybrid orders have the power to severely restrict the freedom of individuals who have not been found guilty of any criminal offence, and have been challenged in two important cases under Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The decisions of the Appeal Courts that the purpose of the orders is merely preventative rather than punitive, and can therefore be justifiably imposed under a civil law procedure, is controversial and indicates an unwillingness to use the powers of the Human Rights Act to challenge such legislation and protect the fundamental human rights of defendants.Dr Geoff Pearson is Lecturer in Law, Management School, University of Liverpool