It\u27s Not Just Hair: Historical and Cultural Considerations for an Emerging Technology

History reflects the social, religious and political importance of human hair. Individuals have used hairstyles to flaunt social conventions about gender, race, sexual identity, and social status. Totalitarian governments have regulated hairstyles as a means of social control and dehumanization. Today, advances in technology now make it possible to discover information about an individual\u27s current or potential health status. Judicial decisions and administrative regulations offer individuals limited protection from state or institutional intrusion into the information revealed by genetic hair analysis. This Article argues that the explosion of technologies that use hair to reveal intimate details of an individual\u27s biological identity challenges society to reconsider the meaning of hair. Ultimately, courts must focus not only on the cultural and social significance of the biological material being analyzed, but also on the potential impact of the genetic information that may be revealed

The Legal Past, Present and Future of Prenatal Genetic Testing: Professional Liability and Other Legal Challenges Affecting Patient Access to Services

This chapter is an overview of the current status of the law in the United States regarding prenatal genetic testing with an emphasis on issues related to professional liability and other challenges affecting patient access to prenatal genetic testing. The chapter discusses the roles that federal regulations, promulgated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), play in the regulation of prenatal genetic tests. The chapter discusses tort litigation based on allegations of malpractice in the provision of prenatal genetic testing and how courts have analyzed issues related to causation, damages and mitigation of damages. The chapter provides reference information regarding how individual states address causes of action under the tort theories of wrongful birth and wrongful life. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future legal issues that may affect clinical prenatal genetic testing services arising from the continued expansion of prenatal genetic testing, legal restrictions on access to abortion and the potential development of embryonic treatments