Scholar’s Corner: Recent Scholarly Works in Global Health Law

The Ethical Health Lawyer: An Empirical Assessment of Moral Decision Making

Joshua E. Perry, Vanderbilt University Medical Center – Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society

Ilene N. Moore, affiliation not provided to SSRN

Bruce Barry, Vanderbilt University

Ellen Wright Clayton, Vanderbilt University School of Law

Amanda R. Carrico, Vanderbilt University

December 10, 2008

Abstract:

Writing in 1999, legal ethics scholar Brad Wendel noted that “[v]ery little empirical work has been done on the moral decision making of lawyers.” Indeed, since the mid-1990s, few empirical studies have attempted to explore how attorneys deliberate about ethical dilemmas they encounter in their practice. Moreover, while past research has explored some of the ethical issues confronting lawyers practicing in certain specific areas of practice, no published data exists probing the moral mind of health care lawyers. As signaled by the creation of a regular column “devoted to ethical issues arising in the practice of health law” in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, the time to address the empirical gap in the professional ethics literature is now.

Accordingly, this article presents data collected from 120 health care lawyers. Presenting this population with a number of hypothetical scenarios relating to how they would respond when confronting an ethical dilemma without an obvious solution or when facing a situation in which their personal values were in tension with their professional obligations, this article represents a first step toward better understanding how lawyers who practice in health care settings understand and resolve the moral discomfort they encounter in their professional lives.

Available at SSRN. 

Cancer to be the World’s Leading Killer by 2010

According to the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, cancer will overtake heart disease as the world’s leading cause of death by 2010. The increase in mortality attributable to cancer is due, in large part, to the increase of tobacco consumption in developing countries–particularly in China and India, where 40% of the world’s smokers now live.  The increase is also due to better cancer screening and reporting.

The number of people diagnosed with cancer is expected to hit 12 million this year, with the number of deaths expected to be 7 million.  An annual one percent increase worldwide in cases and deaths is expected,  with even larger increases in China, Russia and India.  Experts expect that number of new cancer cases annually will hit 27 million by 2030, with 17 million deaths. 

According to Dr. Douglas Blayney, president-elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology:

“Few are aware that cancer already kills more people in poor countries than HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined. And if current smoking trends continue, the problem will get significantly worse.”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Turns 60

On Wednesday, December 10, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, considered the foundation of international human rights law and the first universal statement on the basic principles of inalienable human rights, turned 60.  The declaration was passed in recognition of “the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” 

Article 25(1) of the Declaration states:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

In honor of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights have written a letter to President-Elect Obama asking him to fulfill the promise of Universal Human Rights.

Among other requests, the Physicians for Human Rights ask Obama to:

1. Ensure that the prohibition against torture will be unambiguously enforced and that health professionals are no longer involved in interrogations.
2. Invest in global health, specifically addressing women’s rights and health, and the health workforce needs of disease-burdened countries.

3. Commit to realizing the right to the highest attainable standard of health in the United States.

Read more about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including its Guinness World Record for being the most translated work, here.