Evaluating the Human Rights Performance of Legislatures

Despite increased recognition of the role of legislatures inprotecting human rights, particularly through their scrutinyof proposed legislation, there has been little detailed considerationof how best to evaluate their performance in discharging thisrole. This article aims to fill this significant gap by outliningand defending a methodology for carrying out such an evaluation.Our objective is to provide a rich and valid account of theperformance of legislatures by identifying strengths and weaknessesof existing legislative institutions and processes. Such a processcan also inform recommendations as to how institutions and processes,in particular legislatures, might be improved.     

Ensuring the safe and effective FDA regulation of fecal microbiota transplantation

Scientists, policymakers, and medical professionals alike have become increasingly worried about the rise of antibiotic resistance, and the growing number of infections due to bacteria like Clostridium difficile, which cause a significant number of deaths and are imposing increasing costs on our health care system. However, in the last few years, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), the transplantation of stool from a healthy donor into the bowel of a patient, has emerged as a startlingly effective means to treat recurrent C. difficile infections. At present, the FDA is proposing to regulate FMT as a biologic drug. However, this proposed classification is both underregulatory and overregulatory. The FDA''s primary goal is to ensure that patients have access to safe, effective treatments—and as such they should regulate some aspects of FMT more stringently than they propose to, and others less so. This essay will examine the nature of the regulatory challenges the FDA will face in deciding to regulate FMT as a biologic drug, and will then evaluate available policy alternatives for the FDA to pursue, ultimately concluding that the FDA ought to consider adopting a hybrid regulatory model as it has done in the case of cord blood.     

A positive interpretation of the expansion of urban services in Latin America,with some Colombian evidence

It is argued that the contemporary phenomenon of rapid urbanisation cum rural‐urban migration with a high share of new urban jobs located in the service sector is likely to be an appropriate response to the agricultural, manufacturing, and service production functions available to the countries in question. There is at present no reason to believe it to be a less efficient process than the historical pattern in now developed countries, where production of goods provided relatively more urban employment than it does today. The nature of technological change between then and now appears to be a key factor in explaining the difference in patterns.     

Choosing Among Parallel Health Care Systems in a Bariba Community

This article assesses the significance of Canada's role in the Opération des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC) and, more generally, Canada's foreign policy during the early months of the Congo crisis. It argues that Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's government pursued a policy that recognized the importance of achieving Western objectives in the Congo but at the same time eschewed the strident Cold War views of some North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies. The Canadian government was forced to weigh the importance of sometimes-conflicting foreign policy considerations when developing policy during the Congo crisis, and this ultimately lead to an unwillingness to be seen to be pursuing a concerted NATO approach to the Congo's tribulations. This would suggest recent interpretations that portray Canadian participation in ONUC as an example of how Canada's peacekeeping policy primarily served Western, Cold War objectives might not be entirely correct.     

Utility of a Grief Services Program for Medical Examiners' Offices

Medical examiner/coroner's (ME/C) offices investigate sudden, violent, and unexpected deaths, leaving those close to the deceased suffering traumatic loss with little in terms of support and counseling. We investigated a grief services program (GSP) at the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) to better understand the needs of bereaved individuals, identify the services provided, and propose our findings as a model for others. A total of 1085 contacts occurred over 1 year, with the majority occurring at OMI (60.5%), followed by telephone (23.1%). Support was primarily provided to those suffering a loss due to homicide (28.8%) and suicide (26.1%). The roles grief counselors play in the setting of a GSP and ME/C office are multiple. Given the frequent utilization of OMI's GSP and diverse reasons for visits, it is apparent there is a need for GSPs at ME/C offices, particularly given the traumatic nature of deaths investigated by ME/Cs.