Liberty, Equality, and Parentage in the Era of Posthumous Conception

This essay uses Astrue v. Capato as a platform to examine how liberty and equality interact within parent-child relationships. It observes that as prospective parents have experienced an increase in liberty due to new reproductive technologies the children they create have not necessarily experienced a commensurate increase in equality. The law’s myopic focus on parent-child relationships rather than provider-dependent relationships renders posthumously conceived children unequal along multiple dimensions. They may have not only one provider, but also only one parent. This essay argues that shifting the law’s focus away from identifying parents and towards identifying providers would mitigate the status inequality that posthumously conceived children currently experience without (necessarily) altering the allocation of benefits. The Capato case would have had a very different legacy if, instead of determining whether the twins were Robert Capato’s “children,” the Social Security Administration had simply determined whether they were his “dependents.” This proposal fits with recent challenges to traditional notions of parentage

Civil Marriage: Threat to Democracy

This Article argues that civil marriage and democracy are inherently incompatible, whether assessed from a transcultural perspective that reduces them to their most universal aspects or a culturally situated perspective that accounts for their uniquely American elaborations. Across virtually all cultures, civil marriage privileges sexual partners by offering them exclusive access to highly desirable government benefits, while democracy presupposes liberty and equality. When governments privilege sexual partners, they effectively deprive their citizens of liberty by encouraging them to enter sexual partnerships rather than selfdetermining based on their own preferences; they effectively deprive their citizens of equality by establishing insidious status hierarchies. While some deprivations of liberty and equality are justified-for example, those offset by substantial benefits to social welfare-this Article argues that deprivations of liberty and equality resulting from civil marriage are emphatically unjustified. The incompatibility that exists on a transcultural level is magnified when one considers civil marriage and democracy in their American elaborations. American civil marriage privileges not only sexual partners but also religious, patriarchal, and hererosexist ideologies, whereas American democracy presupposes respect for the Due Process, Equal Protection, Establishment, and Free Speech Clauses. Even if American civil marriage could be stripped of its religious, patriarchal, and heterosexist aspects, it would remain an essentially undemocratic institution due to its inherent privileging of sexual partners. Inasmuch as American civil marriage cannot be democratized, this Article argues that it should be abolished. It does not, however, propose (as some have) that the institution be replaced by a relatively analogous civil union regime. It instead proposes that states remove themselves entirely from the business of affirming sexual partnerships. It explains that abolishing civil marriage would not only enhance American democracy, it would also enable states to allocate governmental benefits more appropriately. It should be emphasized that this Article applies only to civil marriage and does not propose to prevent sexual partners from celebrating their commitments through private ceremonies or dissolving their relationships according to the terms of private contracts

Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell Therapy: A Review

Chimeric Antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T cell) therapy is a novel adoptive immunotherapy where T lymphocytes are engineered with synthetic receptors known as chimeric antigen receptors (CAR). CARs are engineered and constructed specifically to reprogram a patient’s T cells to target tumor cells. These CARs predominantly are used to treat hematological malignancies including Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma. Specific targets often used include, CD19, CD20, CD30, and CD138. Although this novel therapy is promising it has its disadvantages. CAR T-cell therapy-associated toxicities, including cytokine release syndrome, on-target/off-tumor, and other neurologic toxicities have been observed and are being properly managed in clinic. In this review, the applications of CAR-T cells in different hematological malignancies, the anatomy and production of CARs, along with future directions are discussed. This technique could pave the way for future improvements on the effectiveness and persistence of adoptive immunologic therapies

Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Climate Action Plan for Armstrong Township, Pennsylvania

Abstract A greenhouse gas inventory was conducted in Armstrong Township, Pennsylvania in the fall of 2019 and a partial draft of a climate action plan containing suggested mitigation actions to decrease greenhouse gas emissions in the jurisdiction followed using the results of the inventory. The inventory shows the following distribution of emissions: the transportation sector with 82.50% followed by the residential energy sector with 10.89%, the commercial energy sector with 3.65%, the solid waste sector with 1.65%, the industrial energy sector with 0.91%, and the water and wastewater sector with 0.38%. In total, Armstrong Township contributed 15,327 Mt CO2e of greenhouse gas emissions in the calendar year 2017. The formulated emissions reduction plan includes reductions in the transportation sector through reducing vehicle miles travelled in the jurisdiction and in the residential and commercial energy sectors through installation of solar photovoltaic panels for renewable energy generation. Keywords: greenhouse gas inventory, climate action plan, emissions, Armstrong Townshi

Liberty, Equality, and Parentage in the Era of Posthumous Conception

This essay uses Astrue v. Capato as a platform to examine how liberty and equality interact within parent-child relationships. It observes that as prospective parents have experienced an increase in liberty due to new reproductive technologies the children they create have not necessarily experienced a commensurate increase in equality. The law’s myopic focus on parent-child relationships rather than provider-dependent relationships renders posthumously conceived children unequal along multiple dimensions. They may have not only one provider, but also only one parent. This essay argues that shifting the law’s focus away from identifying parents and towards identifying providers would mitigate the status inequality that posthumously conceived children currently experience without (necessarily) altering the allocation of benefits. The Capato case would have had a very different legacy if, instead of determining whether the twins were Robert Capato’s “children,” the Social Security Administration had simply determined whether they were his “dependents.” This proposal fits with recent challenges to traditional notions of parentage

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for ADHD in College: Recommendations “Hot Off the Press”

ADHD leads to impairment across the lifespan including during the college years. An increasing number of studies document the academic, social, and psychological impairments associated with the disorder in college (DuPaul, Weyandt, O’Dell, & Varejao, 2009). Yet, until very recently, there were no published studies on cognitive-behavioral treatment approaches specifically tailored to college students with ADHD. Over the past year, however, four research groups have published work on skills-based cognitive-behavioral treatments for this population. My goal in this article is to briefly summarize these findings and to identify key recommendations for clinicians working with college students with the disorder that emerge across studies. In addition, I will integrate findings from basic research on ADHD and memory strategies that my colleagues and I have recently completed and make the case for inclusion of these strategies into skills-based ADHD treatments for college students

Mandatory Ultrasounds and the Precession of Simulacra

The term “precession of simulacra”—coined by French philosopher Jean Baudrillard to describe the postmodern phenomenon wherein “images precede reality”—accurately describes what is wrong with the pre-abortion ultrasound mandates that have recently been enacted in a number of states. The term captures the idea that the traditional reality–image hierarchy has been inverted and repeatedly re-inverted to the point where the boundary between the two has become blurred. Laws that require doctors to display and describe sonograms prior to performing abortions exploit this blurring by encouraging women seeking abortions to experience fetal images more vividly than they experience the realities that lead them to their abortion decisions. Such laws are, when considered in context with other abortion regulations, quite transparent attempts to characterize fetusesas persons” and women seeking abortions as their “mothers,” at a time when the women have already considered and rejected those labels as inconsistent with their own lived experience. While it is questionable whether such laws actually prevent many abortions, it is clear that the intent behind the laws—and in some cases their effect—is to impose guilt and shame on a highly vulnerable population. This Article explains how an ultrasound alters the experience of pregnancy, how ultrasound mandates operate as pro-life initiatives, and how women and their doctors can challenge these mandates. It argues that, although the most successful challenges to date have rested on free speech grounds, courts ought to invalidate ultrasound mandates on the basis that they deprive women of “equal dignity” under the Fourteenth Amendment. After sketching this legal framework, the Article draws on postmodern theory to make both descriptive and normative claims: Descriptively, it claims that ultrasound mandates represent a “precession of simulacra” in that they attempt to render fetal images prior to women’s own realities. Normatively, it claims that ultrasound mandates ought to be abolished because our laws should not propel us into the state Baudrillard called “hyperreality,” in which the distinction between the simulated and the real is irreparably lost

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies for ADHD

This chapter provides an introduction to the science and practice of CBT for adult ADHD and next-step resources for those wishing to learn more. As such, the chapter does not review every psychosocial approach for adult ADHD listed earlier; instead, it focuses on CBT treatment principles and the most rigorously tested approaches. The information presented draws heavily on the growing research literature on CBT in general and specifically for adult ADHD. In the latter part of the chapter, I also provide some general recommendations to clinicians implementing skills-based treatment with this population, drawing on the clinical literature and my experience as a clinician conducting CBT with clients in the context of research trials and general outpatient work. Because of its relatively short history, CBT for adult ADHD is an exciting and dynamic area of research and practice despite the many questions that remain to be answered