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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Emergency room.

Hospitals That Ditch Masks Risk Exposure

By Nina Kohn and Irina D. Manta

This month, New York became the latest to join the growing list of states that have ended their requirements for routine masking in hospitals and other healthcare settings.

In response, at least one of the state’s largest hospital systems is throwing off the mask despite the continued high level of virus transmission in New York City and most of the rest of the state. NYU’s Langone hospital system decided that — outside of the Emergency Room — patients would generally only be required to mask “if they have fever and cough” (query what percentage of individuals with recent COVID-19 infections did not have this specific combo of symptoms — spoiler: it’s probably high). Similarly, the hospital announced that masking by direct care staff was optional in most situations, with masks required mainly during certain procedures, in particular patient rooms, or — more cryptically — when “there is concern for exposure to infectious aerosols.”

Ending routine masking in hospital settings is a dangerous move. It puts patients and staff at risk for infection, and its potential long-term effects. It also exposes hospitals to the risk of liability.

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Multiethnic women in colorful casual clothes discussing in the group meeting.

Rebuilding Trust in Public Health and Public Health Law

By Leslie E. Wolf

With our recent (and continuing) experience of the devastating COVID-19 global pandemic, one might think that our collective appreciation for public health efforts and the people advancing those efforts would be high. Instead, public health officials have been vilified and attacked, and public health laws have been weakened, leaving us vulnerable to the next public health emergency.

So, how do we move forward? An essential first step is to refocus on the “public” in public health. Public health efforts and public health law depend on community support.

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LISBON, PORTUGAL - 7 NOVEMBER 2017: Dr. Oz, heart surgeon & television personality speaks at the Web Summit, Lisbon.

The Dr. Oz Paradox

By Claudia E. Haupt

Why does the law sanction giving bad advice to one patient, while it permits giving bad advice to millions of YouTube or television viewers, which may result in significant physical harm?

We might call this the “Dr. Oz paradox.” Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, is a famous television personality as well as a licensed physician. But, according to one study, half of his publicly disseminated medical advice is wrong. Yet, his sizable audience may very well follow it anyway, and perhaps suffer harm as a result. Such bad advice, which could get any doctor in legal trouble if disseminated to their patients, may be given to the public at large without fear of sanction. The consequences of this sharp doctrinal distinction can be quite jarring.

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Cell culture.

A New Theory for Gene Ownership

By James Toomey

The story of Henrietta Lacks is surely among the most famous in the history of bioethics, and its facts are well-known. Ms. Lacks sought treatment for cervical cancer. After conducting a biopsy on her tumor, her doctors learned that her cancer cells reproduced uniquely effectively. Without her knowledge or consent, her doctors derived from the cells the HeLa cell line — the world’s first immortal human cell line, worth billions and a driver of the biotechnology revolution. Lacks died in poverty.

No doubt her doctors’ behavior was not consistent with today’s standards of informed consent. But another question has remained more persistently challenging — did the doctors steal something from Lacks? Did she own the cells of her tumor? Or, perhaps more precisely, because few argue that HeLa is really the same thing as Lacks’s tumor cells, did she own the genetic information contained in her tumor?

In a new paper, Property’s Boundaries (forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review, March 2023), I develop a theory of what can and cannot be owned to answer these kinds of questions — pervasive in bioethics, from debates about ownership of organs to embryos. My conclusion, in short, is that because the essence of the idea of ownership is a relationship of absolute control, anything that can be the subject of human control can, in principle, be owned. But that which we cannot control we cannot own. From this perspective, Henrietta Lacks owned the cells of her tumor, and the tumor itself. But the genetic information within them — facts about the universe subject to no human control — simply cannot be owned, by her or anyone else.

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Vial and syringe.

Can Children Consent to the COVID Vaccine? The Case of Foster Care and Juvenile Justice

By Victoria Kalumbi

Despite pediatric COVID-19 vaccine availability, many youth remain unvaccinated, and are thus at higher risk of life-altering outcomes as a result of contracting COVID-19.[1]

Some children may be unvaccinated by no choice of their own, but instead because of decisions made by parents, guardians, or state or local government officials.

In this post, I argue that young people should have the opportunity to consent to vaccines. I focus on the specific case of children in foster care and the juvenile justice system, as they are particularly vulnerable amid the ongoing pandemic. However, the legal and political avenues explored in this piece to ensure that young people have a stake in their health and vaccine status are broadly generalizable to all children.

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