Desperately seeking donors: the 'saviour sibling' decision in Quintavalle v Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (UK)

The recent House of Lords decision in Quintavalle v Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has raised difficult and complex issues regarding the extent to which embryo selection and reproductive technology can be used as a means of rectifying genetic disorders and treating critically ill children. This comment outlines the facts of Quintavalle and explores how the House of Lords approached the legal, ethical and policy issues that arose out of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's (UK) decision to allow reproductive and embryo technology to be used to produce a 'saviour sibling' whose tissue could be used to save the life of a critically ill child. Particular attention will be given to the implications of the decision in Quintavalle for Australian family and medical law and policy. As part of this focus, the comment explores the current Australian legislative and policy framework regarding the use of genetic and reproductive technology as a mechanism through which to assist critically ill siblings. It is argued that the present Australian framework would appear to impose significant limits on the medical uses of genetic technology and, in this context, would seem to reflect many of the principles that were articulated by the House of Lords in Quintavalle.     

The Indiana University Advanced Research and Technology Institute: A Case Study

The Indiana University Advanced Research and Technology Institute (ARTI) is the technology transfer organ of the Indiana University system. ARTIs structure is complex, and has been dynamic since its creation in 1996. This complexity stems in part from the diversity represented by the Indiana University system and from competing interests within the university itself. In addition to the intrinsic value of higher education, the university has the potential to add substantial value to Indianas economic landscape through technology transfer, economic development initiatives and the resulting job creation, but realizing that potential will require effectively leveraging a disconnected network including the IU campuses and critical capabilities contributed by the states other world class institutions. This paper reviews the formation of ARTI, a discussion of its structure and evolving mission, recent initiatives and some possible metrics for technology transfer initiatives.     

The Service Sector's Acquisition and Development of Information Technology: Infrastructure and Productivity

The paper explains why the productivity of information technology (IT) in the service sector of the U.S. economy is increased by the provision of infratechnology. The size and growth of the service sector and its investment in IT are discussed, and a key fact and a key inference are developed. The fact: The absorption costs of IT are the vast majority of the IT investment costs to the service sector. The inference: Infratechnology investments are an efficient way to increase both private and social benefits of incurring the cost of implementing IT.     

Appealing (but not Necessarily Winning) to Improve Your Social Status

In this article, I argue that litigants identify the appellate courts as offering a powerful and public arena where litigants' claims are placed (at least temporarily) on an equal footing with the current state of the law. In this context, the initiation of appeals is treated as synonymous with receiving endorsements from the appellate courts that the litigants' original claims had sufficient merit to deserve better treatment than they had received previously from either the opposing parties or the trial courts. These actions work to raise appellants' social status, and I propose that such activity is one additional reason why some litigants might appeal.     

Partnerships to Improve Rural and Remote Health Care

It is well known that rural communities do not have access to the same range of healthcare services as urban communities and that health status is poorer in rural areas. As models of health service delivery are changing from treatment and illness prevention to wellness models, health providers are under increasing pressure to re-engineer healthcare services to rural and remote areas in a climate of shrinking resources and community skepticism. The purpose of this article is to examine a developing model of partnership in rural Tasmaniain the context of these changes to health service delivery, changes to health professional training and the application of information and telecommunications technology. The partners are the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services and the University of Tasmania. The establishment of the university's Rural Health Teaching Sites in conjunction with the Tasmanian Telehealth Network provides a demonstration of this partnership in action.     

College education requirements for police entry level and promotion: A study

Administrators of law enforcement agencies are increasingly caught up in conflicts between demands to increase educational standards for police officers and the need to justify those increased standards based upon job relevance. On the one hand, national commissions suggest four year degree prerequisites for entry level into police work; on the other hand, police administrators are reluctant to impose rigid higher educational requirements because of possible negative ramifications such as a limited recruitment pool, rapid officer turnover, and court mandates to prove the job relevance of a college education. This study addresses these concerns by reviewing current empirical studies and relevant court decisions which add insight into this topic and which will, hopefully, assist administrators in making decisions regarding college educational requirements for hiring and promotion.