1,720,966 research outputs found
Muzzling Anti-Vaxxer FEAR Speech: Overcoming Free Speech Obstacles with Compelled Speech
Get PDFAs the anti-vax industry continues to stoke fear and incite vaccine resistance, some means must be found to detoxify their false messages. Counterspeech, the preferred mode to deal with unfortunate rhetoric, is both ineffective and counter-effective when addressing factual “scientific speech” addressing health, I show here that many instances of the most potent anti-vax speech arise in the context of arguably commercial speech. I therefore investigate other free speech protections available to shield factually false anti-vax speech used in this context, concluding that while complete First Amendment protection may exist in the context of political speech (without proof of fraud), protections are more limited in the context of commercial speech. I then investigate the commercial ties of anti-vax groups and their mechanisms used in their strikingly effective outreach targeting insular audiences: the conference and pamphlet vehicles Research indicates that these anti-vax vehicles incorporate fingerprints of commercial enterprise, thereby making them eligible for regulation under the doctrine of compelled speech. I conclude by proposing that this approach allows for requiring imposition of warning labels on pamphlets as well as conference advertising and marketing. This novel approach may provide the salutary benefit not obtainable by counterspeech
\u3ci\u3eWrongful Life\u3c/i\u3e in the Age CRISPR-CAS: Using the Legal Fiction of The Conceptual Being to Redress Wrongful Gamete Manipulation
No full textVirtually all ‘wrongful life’ actions (claims brought by children for pre-birth injuries) are denied. The basis for this doctrine pivots around the refusal to allow recompense for actions which cause harm, but also result in the child’s birth. We, therefore, are faced with a legal lacuna, where children suffering serious harms as a result of the latest reproductive technologies are legal orphans. This Article details the avenues of potential harm caused by modern reproductive technologies, which I call wrongful genetic manipulation (WGM), where the injured child would have no right of action. To address this void, I create a novel remedy via a legal fiction, “the conceptual being,” which would enable these children to bypass current restrictions and claim an expanded class of damages, including pain and suffering, emotional injury, and unjust enrichment
\u3ci\u3eWrongful Life\u3c/i\u3e in the Age CRISPR-CAS: Using the Legal Fiction of The Conceptual Being to Redress Wrongful Gamete Manipulation
No full textVirtually all ‘wrongful life’ actions (claims brought by children for pre-birth injuries) are denied. The basis for this doctrine pivots around the refusal to allow recompense for actions which cause harm, but also result in the child’s birth. We, therefore, are faced with a legal lacuna, where children suffering serious harms as a result of the latest reproductive technologies are legal orphans. This Article details the avenues of potential harm caused by modern reproductive technologies, which I call wrongful genetic manipulation (WGM), where the injured child would have no right of action. To address this void, I create a novel remedy via a legal fiction, “the conceptual being,” which would enable these children to bypass current restrictions and claim an expanded class of damages, including pain and suffering, emotional injury, and unjust enrichment
Creighton Law Review
No full textINTRODUCTION|Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories have the theme of a particular animal being modified from its original form to its current state by acts of humans or some magical being. No description could come closer to the morphed state epidemiology has assumed in legal parlance than the narrative of Kipling's How the Kangaroo Got its Legs. To paraphrase Kipling's opening lines, 'Not always was the Epidemiologist as now we do behold him, but a different animal with four long legs and a long tail.' The statement is apt. Tail is an epidemiological term that refers to the skewness of a population distribution; if the test population is not normally distributed, it provides a poor basis for extrapolation, either to the plaintiff or the public. Long legs is a colloquial term referring to staying power, such as the hold the present application of epidemiology has had on legal causation, even when perhaps it is unsuited for the task...2319-3905
Abortion, Moral Law, and the First Amendment: The Conflict Between Fetal Rights & Freedom of Religion
Get PDFThe status of abortion as murder, and therefore amenable to governmental intervention and criminalization, has been asserted by those favoring limits on abortion. Opponents claim a superior right of privacy and/or equality exists under the Constitution, vesting in a woman the right to decide activities and actions that affect her physical corpus. The claimed interest of a State to protect the fetus is impliedly based on the concept of “morality” or “natural law,” specifically on the premise that feticide is violative of the basic code of conduct of societal norms. To my knowledge, until now, this is the first investigation undertaken to determine whether in fact indicators of “natural law” or the moral code support this claim from a legal perspective.
To investigate whether there is any “moral” basis to support the State’s claim and the Supreme Court’s recent rulings, I first examined the earliest and most important social codes that have governed the conduct of “man” since the beginnings of civilization, finding that none regard feticide within forty days of gestation as murder. I next investigated international views on abortion to determine if consensus on abortion regulations existed, (and which would be expected if a collective “moral code” existed) and found none, either in timing of allowable abortion on demand or exceptions to any restrictions.
I also demonstrate that the Catholic position on legitimacy of killing a life form (based on the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue) is vastly different than, say, the Jewish view, and that this appears to be a driving force behind the courts’ positions. As such, invidious, idiosyncratic religious influences are likely driving abortion regulations. I therefore suggest the Freedom of Religion Clause specifically bars legal intervention into practice, whether legislative or by judicial fiat.
In sum, this Article demonstrates that abortion or feticide is not considered either murder (or even killing another human) by many traditions, religious or moral, and concludes that regulating abortion as sin, rather than crime, should be left to religions’ determination rather than governmental intervention. As such, I suggest that the most compelling argument then to support the claim of a woman’s right to determine whether or not to abort would be on the basis of the First Amendment’s guarantee of Freedom of Religion
Recommended from our members
Anti-Vax FEAR* Speech: A Public-Health-Driven Policy Initiative When Counter-Speech Won\u27t Work (*Fake, Flawed, Fraudulent, False, Endangering, and Reckless)
No full text\u3ci\u3eWrongful Life\u3c/i\u3e in the Age CRISPR-CAS: Using the Legal Fiction of The Conceptual Being to Redress Wrongful Gamete Manipulation
No full textVirtually all ‘wrongful life’ actions (claims brought by children for pre-birth injuries) are denied. The basis for this doctrine pivots around the refusal to allow recompense for actions which cause harm, but also result in the child’s birth. We, therefore, are faced with a legal lacuna, where children suffering serious harms as a result of the latest reproductive technologies are legal orphans. This Article details the avenues of potential harm caused by modern reproductive technologies, which I call wrongful genetic manipulation (WGM), where the injured child would have no right of action. To address this void, I create a novel remedy via a legal fiction, “the conceptual being,” which would enable these children to bypass current restrictions and claim an expanded class of damages, including pain and suffering, emotional injury, and unjust enrichment
Human Reproductive Cloning: Science, Jewish Law and Metaphysics
No full textUnder traditional Jewish Law (halacha), assessment of human reproductive cloning (HRC) has been formulated along four lines of inquiry, which I discussed in Part I of this paper. Therein I also analyze five relevant doctrines of Talmudic Law, concluding that under with a risk-benefit analysis HRC fails to fulfill the obligation ‘to be fruitful and multiply’ and should be strictly prohibited. Here, I review of the topic from an exigetical Biblical and Kabbalistic perspective, beginning with exploring comments of the Ramban (Nachmanides) which suggest Kabbalistic insights very much in keeping with current biology. In this Part II of the paper, I expand and annotate statements of the Ramban on the interrelationship of the reproductive faculties of an organism and its soul by examining the development of the spiritual states of plant, animal and human and noting the commensurate evolution with its reproductive facilities. Speculating that the reproductive mechanism of each species is indelibly related to its soul-state, I suggest that interfering with human sexual reproduction by HRC has the same effect the Ramban argues is the result of Kilayim (interbreeding), i.e., wrecking havoc with the Universe. In Part III, I postulate a biologic explanation for warnings found in the Golemic Literature and suggest that these allude to the importance of maintaining human genetic diversity through sexual reproduction. The conclusions I reached after evaluating the propriety of HRC under a Kabbalistic/metaphysical index comports with those I reached using a traditional legal /halachic inquiry in Part I. Thus, both systems arrive at the conclusion that HRC is in violation of the divine and natural order and constitute a distinct biological threat to the survival of the human species, a conclusions in accord with current scientific thinking
Weapons of Mass Hysteria, Faulty Biothreat Predictions, and Their Impact on National (In)Security: A Case-Study of Smallpox
Get PDFBiothreat projections for pandemic and bioterrorist planning are generated by a straight-forward computational system, rather than scientific evidence
Recommended from our members
The Sperminator as a Public Nuisance: Redressing Wrongful Birth and Life Claims in New Ways (A.K.A. New Tricks for Old Torts)
No full text- …
