Category: Pediatrics

Canaries in the Coal Mine: HUD’s Failure to End Childhood Lead Exposure in Federally Assisted Housing

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by Anna Aguilar and Sidney Lee

In 1971, Congress tasked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with establishing procedures to “eliminate as far as practicable” the dangers of lead poisoning. Yet, HUD has repeatedly fallen short of accomplishing this. More than 50 years later, for children in federally assisted housing in the United States, lead exposure is hardly a thing of the past. Government inaction by HUD has consistently marred efforts to eliminate lead poisoning. HUD typically only takes action to prevent lead poisoning in federally assisted housing when compelled by Congress or a government watchdog. Protecting the health of children should not be reserved only when an agency is compelled to do so – especially when delay places children in jeopardy.

Any amount to lead exposure is hazardous, and young children – especially those under age six – are at particular risk. Even small amounts of lead can cause severe and irreversible harm to the brain. For the 3.6 million children currently living in homes with lead-based paint, each day is a gamble with their health.

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Judicial Court Files And Judge Gavel.

When the Law of Scientific Evidence Collides with Medical Practice

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By Barbara Pfeffer Billauer

Approaches to resolving scientific evidentiary issues continue to diverge throughout the country.[1] A prominent recent example includes the rejection of the medical diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) to reflect disparate views in the scientific, medical, and legal communities.

Under guise of making a scientific evidentiary ruling, a New Jersey court has just dismembered the medical diagnosis of SBS, with the judge disavowing the condition’s validity. The decision concerned two babies, both under one year old, who suffered devastating neurological injuries while under the care of their fathers.

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Group of Diverse Kids Playing in a Field Together.

Securing a Place for Children’s Rights in Public Health Emergencies

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By Sheila Varadan, Ton Liefaard, and Jaap Doek

The Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Public Health Emergencies (Principles) make a significant contribution towards clarifying the scope of States’ legal obligations under international human rights law during public health emergencies. What is missing, however, is a specific and detailed discussion on the rights obligations and principles owed to children during public health emergencies. This leaves open the question of how States will guarantee respect for and protection of children’s rights in future public health emergencies, and what measures, if any, will be taken to ensure children are actively listened to and engaged with in the prevention of, preparedness for, and response to public health emergencies (PPRR).

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line drawing of computers, tablets, and televisions.

Autistic Screen Time: Swipe Left on Stigma

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By Maxfield Sparrow

I am an autistic person who has been using the internet as a social prosthetic device since 1983. I was born in 1967 and began therapy in 1972, so the iPad didn’t exist and the only screen time parents worried about was the five channels of broadcast television available twenty hours a day. TV was fine, but my real passion was books. I was hyperlexic and from a very early age I had an unquenchable thirst for written language. My obsession with reading was considered pathological, and adults took my books away to try to force me to socialize with other children instead.

It didn’t work. But it is sadly common that those of us with developmental disabilities are held to higher standards than everyone else. As children, once we are identified, everything about us is scrutinized. Well-meaning adults, fearing for our future, hold us to higher standards of everything from politeness to academic discipline to the age-appropriateness of our interests to the ways we move through the world. We’re not allowed to “get away with” the things non-disabled kids do every day.

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a man waves an intersex-inclusive progress pride flag in the wind on the sky.

Certainty and Uncertainty in Trans-Intersex Science Politics

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By Maayan Sudai

Joanna Wuest’s Born This Way: Science, Citizenship, and Inequality in the American LGBTQ+ Movement describes the evolution of the “born this way” framework through pivotal moments in the history of the LGBTQI+ movement.

A central theme of the book’s analysis is the role that “certainty” and “uncertainty” play in the legitimation of science-based policy regarding sexuality and gender issues. Uncertainty of what might happen has been pitted against LGBTQI+ reforms, from when conservative researchers and practitioners argued the exposure of young children to an openly gay guardian or schoolteacher could be harmful (p.92), to present-day attempts to leverage uncertainty to block trans access to sex-segregated bathrooms, prisons, and shelters (p.181).

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SACRAMENTO, CA, U.S.A. - OCTOBER 9, 2021: A mother and child march with Proud Mom and Trans Rights are Human Rights signs during the National Trans Visibility March.

Protecting Trans Children: Scientific Uncertainty and Legal Debates Over Child Custody and Access to Care

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By Marie-Amélie George

A tweet turned Luna Younger’s personal struggle into a national controversy. Using 148 characters, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services would be investigating the seven-year-old’s family. Prompting his declaration was a jury’s award of custody to Luna’s mother, Anne Georgulas, a pediatrician who supported Luna’s gender transition. A year before the case made its way into court, Luna had asked her parents to call her Luna, rather than her (traditionally male) legal name, to reflect her gender identity. That same year, a therapist diagnosed Luna with gender dysphoria, which is distress from the mismatch between a person’s assigned sex at birth and their gender identity. As a result, medical professionals recommended that Luna be referred to as “she” and be allowed to wear the feminine clothing and keep the long hair that she preferred. Luna’s father, Jeffrey Younger, registered his objection to Luna’s gender identity by shaving her head, even as he allowed Luna’s twin brother to maintain his locks. Georgulas petitioned for an order prohibiting her ex-husband from “engaging in non-affirming behavior and/or taking Luna outside the home as [her birth name], or allowing others to do so.” Jeffrey Younger counterclaimed for sole legal custody.

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MONTREAL, CANADA -16 AUG 2015- The annual Fierte Montreal parade took place on August 16, 2015 on Boulevard Rene Levesque in Central Montreal. It is the largest Gay Pride in the Francophone world.

“Born This Way,” LGBTQ+ Rights, and the Politics of Uncertainty

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By Joanna Wuest

“Medical uncertainty” is no straightforward matter when it comes to LGBTQ+ health and civil rights. Take for instance the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals 2020 decision striking down a pair of municipal ordinances in Florida that had banned so-called “conversion therapy” for minors (contemporary psychology’s preferred nomenclature is “sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts”). In an enormous blow to the evidence-based notion that such change efforts are harmful — they are indeed responsible for much trauma and death — two Trump-appointed judges declared that the science of sexual orientation and gender identity was much too uncertain to justify the bans. Gesturing to the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) renowned 1973 removal of homosexuality from its list of disorders, the judges explained that “it is not uncommon for professional organizations to do an about-face in response to new evidence or new attitudes.” Ergo, because the APA had changed its mind once fifty years ago, it may just as easily reverse itself again. According to this view, we may one day wake up to find that mental health professionals have reclassified queerness as a malady to be cured rather than a sense of self to be embraced and protected by law.

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WASHINGTON, DC - OCT. 8, 2019: Rally for LGBTQ rights outside Supreme Court as Justices hear oral arguments in three cases dealing with discrimination in the workplace because of sexual orientation.

303 Creative, Transgender Rights, and the Ongoing Culture Wars

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By Michael R. Ulrich

The Supreme Court’s ruling in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis suggests a willingness to ignore the rights and health implications for minority populations under the guise of protecting against theoretical harms. The decision is a crucial blow to strides made in achieving gay rights, and may bolster other attacks on LGBTQ+ rights. As laws that restrict the rights of transgender people in the U.S. face challenges in court, the legal, public health, medical, and bioethics communities have an essential role to play both in properly framing the legal issue, as well as explaining what is truly at stake in these cases to minimize the chances of similarly harmful rulings for the transgender community moving forward.

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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

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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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Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 4, 2021. People waiting for their turn to be vaccinated against Covid-19 at the Club Atlético River Plate Microstadium.

Considerations from Argentina on the Judicial Control of Public Health Policies

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By María Natalia Echegoyemberry and Francisco Verbic

This article looks at the COVID-19 pandemic response in Argentina, with a particular focus on the judicial control of public health policies. Looking ahead, we discuss the mechanisms that need to be implemented in order to avoid undue judicial interference, which is particularly critical in countries like Argentina, where the Judiciary is delegitimized and strongly questioned.

We focus on a case in Argentina where a federal judge ordered the suspension of the campaign for pediatric vaccination against COVID-19.

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