The Elderly and Health Care Rationing

[Excerpt] “The allocation of health care resources involves a societal determination of what resources should be devoted to a particular program. The allocation process is typically performed on a ―macro‖ level, with allocation decisions often affecting only statistical lives. In contrast to the identifiable lives often affected by health care rationing, statistical lives affected by allocation decisions are much more readily sacrificed. A common means of deciding health care allocation is through political processes. Government decisions pertaining to health care spending and regulation typically involve allocation determinations. For example, the Medicare and Medicaid programs allocate resources for numerous purposes. Hospitals, too, regularly make allocation decisions in determining the quantity and type of resources to have available. Their actions, in turn, impact directly upon physicians who subsequently also become health care allocators.

Title 28, Section 2255 of the United States Code--Motion to Vacate, Set Aside or Correct Sentence: Effective or Ineffective Aid to a Federal Prisoner

This article places in historical perspective the enactment and administration by the federal courts of Section 2255 of the Judicial Code and concludes a prisoner’s basic right to attack, collaterally, a conviction is largely unimpaired by this legislation. Section 2255 was enacted not with the idea of enlarging the class of remedies already available to attack a conviction, but rather to provide that a proper attack upon an original conviction be made in the sentencing court and not in some other court through use of the writ of habeas corpus. Resort to habeas corpus is thus allowed only when the remedy by motion is inadequate and ineffective

The Development of the Right of Assembly - A Current Socio-Legal Investigation

It will be the purpose of this article to assay the historical evolution of the freedom of assembly, noting first its development in England and later in America and finally its current position in the twentieth century. Even though the rights of free speech, association, and religion are inescapably drawn into case discussions of freedom of assembly, effort will be made to confine the consideration to the pertinent assembly problems. In addition to considering the fundamental legal propositions embodied in this right, as well as its raison d\u27etre, thought and discussion will be given to the sociological interpretations of the basic need for its recognition. But, before any of this may be undertaken, an attempt to define in more exacting philosophical terms what is meant by the word, Freedom, must be made

The Environment and the Judiciary: A Need for Co-operation or Reform?

In Section 9 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments, Congress authorized a study of the feasibility of establishing an environmental court which would have exclusive jurisdiction over environmental matters. This mandate was devoid of any hint as to the shape and functions of the proposed court, and made no attempt to define the contours of an environmental issue . An examination of the legislative history of the Act is no more helpful in illuminating the Congressional intent. The study was carried out by the Land and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department which, because of the absence of concrete guidelines and of a definition of an environmental issue in the statute, was given the responsibility for transforming the broad, abstract mandate into concrete form. Unfortunately, the study itself, although it does present guidelines for the court, never defines an environmental issue; and the lack of such a definition remains a central problem in understanding and analyzing the findings of the report. The remainder of this article will deal with the results of that study, summarizing the methods employed as well as the specific findings. Since the study does not recommend a separate environmental court as a solution, an alternative approach aimed at sharpening the contours of environmental law through education of the judiciary will be discussed briefly. It is not the aim of this article to present a full-blown conceptual alternative to the idea of an environmental court, but rather to suggest further areas for consideration

Intrusions of a Parvenu: Science, Religion, and the New Biology

Both religion and the law must seriously consider artificial insemination so that dogma and laws are formed to incorporate the process. Science has brought the procedure to a society unequipped to deal with the religious and legal implications of birth through artificial insemination in any of its forms. Not all religions or jurisdictions can be expected to treat the process exactly alike, but there must be an effort on the part of each organization to react to the situation facing them so that their citizens will have some guidance. Section II of this article illuminates the path science is on and the possible ultimate result. Section III explores the interaction between the worlds of science and religion. Section IV presents the current religious reactions of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish hierarchies to the steps science has already taken. This article concludes that religion must provide a belief relating to the widening use of artificial insemination so that the law may codify that belief and present some direction for man seeking to ensure his survival