This toolkit contains the elements needed to understand the problem of medical malpractice in America today, and whether alternative dispute resolution (i.e., arbitration) clauses might be viable among other tort reform options. The toolkit introduces medical liability as an intrinsic component...

This study examines the impact of tort reform on minority access to medical care. Past research has investigated tort reform, but this is the first study to consider minority healthcare access. I examine 261 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) from 1993-2000 to test the impact of non-economic...

“Medical futility,” the doctrine by which hospital ethics boards have assumed the right to authorize medical providers to unilaterally withdraw or decline to provide aggressive life sustaining medical care, has swelled in popularity in recent years and has affected the lives of countless...

Tort-based doctrines of informed consent have utterly failed to assure that patients understand the risks, benefits, and alternatives to the healthcare they receive. Fifty years of experience with the doctrine of informed consent have shown it to be an abject catastrophe. Most patients lack an...

Recent events such as Hurricane Katrina and the global SARS outbreak underscore the importance of having public health and medical systems that are prepared to increase surge capacity in a variety of emergency scenarios. A core component to increasing surge capacity is the availability of...

We assess the potential for medical liability forces to deter medical errors and improve health care treatment quality, identifying liability’s influence by drawing on variations in the manner by which states formulate the negligence standard facing physicians. Using hospital discharge records...

Medical treatment requires informed consent, which in turn requires decision making capacity. When a patient with questionable capacity does not resist treatment, these requirements are often neglected: treatment is administered with no assessment of capacity and no consideration of alternative...

This article examines recent "fetal protection" efforts, which demonize, disenfranchise, and punish pregnant women. These actions erase the bright line of birth which has historically distinguished children from fetuses, and include criminal prosecutions of pregnant women, civil commitments of...

Pressure is increasing for physicians and hospitals to be more open with patients about medical errors and adverse events. An oft-heard view in policy discussions is that fuller disclosure will reduce malpractice litigation, because many patients will come to understand that their injury was not...