Colorful vitamins, pills and tablets on green background.

History Rhymes with the Psychedelic Boom

By David Herzberg

As a historian of psychoactive pharmaceuticals in the 20th century U.S., I see history rhyming in potentially dangerous ways in the current psychedelic boom. After decades of being associated with insanity, violence, and social disorder, psychedelics are now being embraced as potential wonder drugs. What appears to be a radical, 180-degree shift in reputation, however, masks an underlying similarity: both of these mirror-image stories belong to the mythologies of the consumer culture, which attribute broad transformational power to individual acts of consumption. Seeing drugs through this mythological lens prevents us from accessing their potential benefits, while exposing us to the real possibility that they could make things worse.

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DNA helix on colored background.

State Genetic Privacy Statutes: Good Intentions, Unintended Consequences?

By Christi Guerrini, David Gurney, Steve Kramer, CeCe Moore, Margaret Press, and Amy McGuire

State legislators have enacted a flurry of genetic privacy bills that will strengthen the privacy and security practices of direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies and give customers more control over their data. What they might not realize is that these bills could be interpreted in ways that limit law enforcement’s ability to use a new technique that helps identify violent criminals and human remains and exonerate the wrongfully convicted.

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Austin, TX, USA - Oct. 2, 2021: Participants at the Women's March rally at the Capitol protest SB 8, Texas' abortion law that effectively bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

The Impact of Criminal Abortion Bans on Assisted Reproduction in the Post-Dobbs Landscape

By Yvonne Lindgren

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, the constitutional floor that had protected the abortion right for nearly fifty years, and returned the issue of regulating abortion to the states. In the post-Dobbs landscape, thirteen states have banned abortion, either through laws passed after the decision, through trigger laws, or by reviving pre-Roe era abortion bans. As a result of criminalizing abortion, the protective function of medical malpractice law is supplanted by provider and institutional decision-making driven by the imperative to avoid criminal liability and loss of licensure. This essay argues that abortion bans have made all reproductive health care less safe, and that these new pregnancy-related dangers will disproportionately impact assisted reproduction, because those who conceive through assisted reproduction often face a higher risk of complications needing medical intervention, and because women may be reluctant to act as surrogates in light of the heightened risk of pregnancy.

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Concept illustration for changing laws: a pencil sketches half of the scales of justice.

Human Rights Report and Age of Consent for Sex Laws

By Katherine Drabiak

Recently, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) published a report advocating for significant revisions to criminal law, such as decriminalizing prostitution; intentional transmission of HIV; and purchasing and possessing drugs for personal use. Most notably, the report also calls to reexamine laws relating to consensual sexual conduct involving children under the age of majority and people with disabilities who ordinarily cannot “consent.”

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cells with the doors closed at a historic Idaho prison.

Trying and Sentencing Youth As Adults: Key Takeaways from Recent Petrie-Flom Center Event

By Minsoo Kwon

All 50 states have transfer laws that either allow or require children to be prosecuted in adult criminal court, rather than juvenile court. There is no constitutional right to be tried in juvenile court. What has modern neuroscience shown about the differences between the developing and the adult brain, and how justifiable is trying, prosecuting, and sentencing children in the adult criminal justice system?

Panelists discussed these topics during a recent webinar hosted by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics. This article highlights key points made during the conversation.

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3D Rendering Crispr DNA Editing.

Responding to the Comeback of He Jiankui, ‘The CRISPR Baby Scientist’: Lessons from Criminal Justice Theory

By Matthew Chun

He Jiankui — a high-profile Chinese scientist convicted for conducting unethical gene-editing experiments — has been released from prison and is currently fundraising for his new gene therapy endeavor. As the scientific community grapples with how to respond, theories of criminal justice can provide important perspectives to better inform the conversation surrounding Dr. He’s return to research.

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Barbed wire in front of blue sky.

The Struggle to Survive in the Pandemic Prison

By Jamal Spencer and Monik C. Jiménez

Prisons, jails, and other carceral facilities have been core sites of the COVID-19 pandemic, from initial outbreaks in Chinese prisons to some of the largest outbreaks in the U.S. The uniquely dangerous physical conditions within carceral facilities (i.e., overcrowding, poor ventilation, and lack of sanitation); a high prevalence of chronic diseases among incarcerated people; and high levels of physical movement through facilities, resulted in environmental conditions ripe for uncontrolled SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

As early as June 2020, the mortality rate from COVID-19 among incarcerated people was three times higher than the general population and the infection rate five times higher. Yet, despite these inequities, the human toll of COVID-19 among incarcerated people has remained behind the walls and in the shadows. Without intentionally centering the voices of those who have lived in the most extreme conditions of social and physical marginalization, we fail to understand the full toll of the pandemic and impair our ability to respond humanely to future crises. 

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Austin, Tx/USA - May 23, 2020: Family members of prisoners held in the state prison system demonstrate at the Governor's Mansion for their release on parole due to the danger of Covid-19 in prisons.

Federal Failures to Protect Incarcerated People During Public Health Crises

By Rachel Kincaid

As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, and as we face the reality that future pandemics are coming (or have already begun), it’s a fitting time for the United States to take stock of how the carceral system has exacerbated the harms of COVID-19, and for policymakers to seriously consider what can and should be done differently going forward.

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