Animals are Already Legal Persons: On Steven Wise, the Nonhuman Rights Project, and Misguided Personhood Debates

The New York Times Magazine has just published an interesting piece on the Nonhuman Rights Project and Steven Wise, whose mission is to change the common law status of at least some nonhuman animals from “mere things” to “legal persons.”  (I have previously written on their work here).  It is widely agreed, among both advocates and opponents of Wise’s work, that granting legal personhood to animals would be revolutionary.  I think that this view is mistaken.  To understand why, it is helpful to clarify and differentiate between three possible conceptions of what it might mean to be a “legal person”—a term that is often used in imprecise ways.  Doing so reveals that animals are already legal persons, and that personhood does not itself count for very much. Read More

The Neuroethics of Unintentional Memory-Modification

By Matthew L Baum

At least since the publication of the President’s Commission on Bioethics’ report in 2003, “Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness”, there has been an ongoing debate about the ethics of using drugs to modify emotional memories.  Rather than focus on the Hollywood-type total memory erasure featured in the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, many ground the debate in the molecular neuroscience of memory reconsolidation (for an excellent overview, see here). In the process of memory reconsolidation, a newly reactivated memory triggers certain molecular events that are necessary for it to return to long-term storage; during these events, the memory is temporarily susceptible to disruption by certain drugs like the beta-blocker, propranolol. Further work with people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) suggests that using propranolol in this way doesn’t erase a memory, but may blunt the reconsolidation of the memory’s negative emotional content. In the ethical discussion, most agree that 1) it should usually be acceptable to use drugs to modify memories in cases of PTSD where the emotional content of memories becomes debilitating, but 2) the use of memory modifying drugs is usually morally problematic when the target is everyday unpleasant memories, disappointments, and rejections.

Existing debate has focused on intentional memory modification. But what about those who modify memories in these problematic ways unintentionally? Conspicuously under-discussed is the ethics of continuing to use drugs with potential memory-modifying properties for the treatment of other medical conditions. Propranolol, for example, is on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Formulary for treatment of patients with severe liver disease (liver cirrhosis). This (not-small) population of people, in theory, risks unintentionally (and pre-emptively) modifying memories every day!

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WEDNESDAY, 4/23: Reforming Brazilian Pharmaceutical Patent Policy

Reforming Brazilian Pharmaceutical Patent Policy: Lessons from the Past and the Road for the Future

April 23, 12:00pm 

Wasserstein Hall 1010, Harvard Law School, 1585 Massachusetts Ave.

In this lecture by Pedro Paranaguá, he will discuss the report issued by the Brazilian House of Representatives in 2013 as part of an effort to revamp the country’s patent law. Brazil does not want to be a mere exporter of commodities, neither does it want to be a simple consumer of knowledge goods. Brazil wants to be at the cutting edge of innovation; it wants to innovate to compete. Paranaguá’s presentation will introduce the current state of affairs of the Brazilian patent system, with a focus on pharmaceuticals. He will present the main findings and recommendations of the 2013 report, including the tabling of a bill to fix the mistakes of the 1990s.  The talk will be followed by discussion with a panel of experts. Panelists include:

  • Brook K. Baker, Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law; Policy Analyst for Health GAP (Global Access Project)
  • Benjamin N. Roin, Hieken Assistant Professor in Patent Law, Harvard Law School; Co-Director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics; Associate Member, Broad Institute

Pedro Paranaguá has been a Lecturer in Law at the LL.M. in Business Law at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), Brazil, since 2007. Mr. Paranaguá is also the lead Advisor to the ruling Workers Party at the Brazilian House of Representatives for Internet, copyright, patent, data privacy, cybercrime, and related matters. He is responsible for drafting the Brazilian Internet Framework Bill (“Marco Civil”) for the rapporteur, including provisions on net neutrality, ISP liability, and privacy. He coordinated the 350-page report, “Brazil’s Patent Reform,” for the Brazilian House of Representatives. He has been an invited instructor at Duke University School of Law (2011), lecturer in law at FGV Rio, and has held numerous other lectureships in Brazil and abroad (Lecturer in Brazil and abroad (Brazil’s Supreme Court and Senate, Yale, UCLA, UNESCO, UNCTAD, WIPO). He was Director of the A2K Brazil Program at the Center for Technology and Society (CTS-FGV), and co-representative of Creative Commons in Brazil (2005-2010). He produced commissioned studies on copyright and technology for the country’s Culture Ministry, and served as FGV-delegate at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva (2005-2009). He has also served as a member of the Brazilian Free Software Project. From 2001 to 2003, he was an IP lawyer at Gusmão & Labrunie, where he was Project Manager on patents and access to medicines. He is the author of the books Copyright Law (Portuguese) (with Sergio Branco) andPatent Law (Portuguese) (with Renata Reis). Mr. Paranaguá holds a LL.M. (cum laude) in Intellectual Property, Internet and Policy (London) and is a Doctoral candidate (S.J.D.) at Duke University School of Law, where he is finalizing his thesis, “Brazil’s Copyright Law Reform: Tropicália 3.0?”, under the supervision of Professor Jerome Reichman.

Sponsored by the HLS Brazilian Studies Association, with support from the Petrie-Flom Center.

Medical Malpractice or General Negligence? A Redux

By Alex Stein

Whether a tort action sounds in “medical malpractice,” as opposed to “general negligence,” or vice versa, is often critical. Medical malpractice actions must satisfy special requirements that include shortened limitations periods, statutes of repose, expert affidavits, and merit certificates. Suits sounding in ordinary negligence need not satisfy those requirements. Filing and prosecuting those suits is therefore not as onerous and expensive as filing and prosecuting medical malpractice actions.  Read More

Health Class and Personal Preferences

By Nathaniel Counts

High school health classes that are effective in preventing high-risk behaviors employ two educational models: the social influences model and the life skills model.  The social influences model teaches children about social norms and techniques for resisting social influences.  The life skills focuses on developing child autonomy, self-esteem, and self-confidence to help children resist social influences and gain a sense of self.  There are two explanations for why health classes premised on these models would be effective: either they replace the preferences the children were likely to develop with different preferences or they help children develop their own preferences which, for some reason, consistently disfavor high-risk behaviors.

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Announcing 2014-2016 Petrie-Flom Academic Fellow Rachel Sachs

We are pleased to announce that Rachel Sachs will be joining the Petrie-Flom Center later this summer as an Academic Fellow for the 2014-2016 fellowship term. In 2013, Rachel earned her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was the Articles Chair of the Harvard Law Review and a student fellow with both the Petrie-Flom Center and the John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business. Rachel has also earned a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, during which she interned at the United States Department of Health and Human Services. She also holds an A.B. in Bioethics from Princeton University. After law school Rachel clerked for the Honorable Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Rachel’s primary research interests lie at the intersection of patent law and public health, with a particular focus on problems of innovation and access and the ways in which law helps or hinders these problems. Her past scholarship has examined the interactions between patent law and FDA regulation in the area of diagnostic tests, and explored the mechanisms behind the passage of patent-related legislation. Her current scholarship applies this focus on innovation and access to the intersection of patent law and drug reimbursement policies.
You can learn more about Rachel on our website.
Welcome Rachel!

Mental Therapist’s Duty to Prevent Patient’s Crime

By Alex Stein

A clinical social worker hears from his patient about the patient’s interest in child pornography, but does nothing to solve the problem. Later on, the police raids the patient’s house to find evidence that he illegally downloaded, viewed and possessed child pornography. The patient now faces criminal charges.

Can he sue the social worker for malpractice? Would a similar suit be available against a psychiatrist? Read More