{"title":"Medical Termination of Pregnancy: Law and Controversies in the United States and Australia.","authors":"Ian Freckelton","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This editorial reviews the changes over two decades in the United States and Australia in relation to the law governing access to drugs enabling medical termination of pregnancy. It also scrutinises three contentious decisions by the United States Supreme Court between 2022 and 2024 in relation to abortion. It argues that the receptive environment in the United States Supreme Court, as it is currently constituted, to challenges to the lawfulness of terminations of pregnancy and abortion medications is likely to inspire comparable challenges as part of the \"Abortion Wars\" in other countries, including Australia. However, a combination of factors is likely to protect access to terminations, particularly first trimester medical terminations. These include the clinical trajectory of changes made gradually over two decades by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia and Medsafe in New Zealand; evolving attitudes in the community; and the subversive accessibility of \"mere pills\".</p>","PeriodicalId":45522,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Medicine","volume":"31 3","pages":"447-465"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142956507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Injecting Tighter Regulation: Implications of the TGA's Clampdown on Cosmetic Injectables Advertising.","authors":"Christopher Rudge, Cameron Stewart","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recently, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) updated its guidance on cosmetic injectables advertising. The updates confirm that all direct or indirect advertising of cosmetic injectable products, including botulinum toxins or dermal fillers, is prohibited in Australia. While some commentators have lamented these updates, they present no changes to the law. As cosmetic injectables are prescription-only medicines, they have long been subject to the statutory prohibition on direct-to-consumer advertising of medicines in Australia. The updates, however, signal a real change to the TGA's enforcement stance and attitude. In this way, the updated guidance illustrates the practical application of the TGA's responsive and risk-based approach to regulation - a focus of this column. The changes also bring into view some of the emerging dangers associated with cosmetic injectables and related cosmetic treatments. This column explores the regulation of cosmetic injectables, the TGA's changing approach, and its implications.</p>","PeriodicalId":45522,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Medicine","volume":"31 3","pages":"464-482"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142956536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Section 19(2) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 Prevents Prisoners Accessing Medicare: Fact or Fiction?","authors":"Margaret Faux, Damien Linnane, Anthony Levin","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article explores the origins and operation of s 19(2) of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (Cth) and argues that it may not now and may never have created a barrier to Medicare access for prisoners as is commonly thought. Advocates have long asked for a s 19(2) exemption to allow Medicare access in custody. However, even if such an exemption were granted, it may not provide the access to Medicare necessary to have meaningful benefit for prisoners and may have other unintended consequences. We offer an alternative solution to the unquestionable need for Medicare access in prisons that requires no political intervention. This is based on our finding that denial of Medicare access to prisoners has always been practically rather than legally imposed, and the established fact that prisoners do not lose their entitlements to Medicare benefits while incarcerated.</p>","PeriodicalId":45522,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Medicine","volume":"31 3","pages":"624-634"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142956463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"'Truly, Madly, Deeply': Using Law to Compel Health and Lifestyle Influencers to Tell the Truth.","authors":"Aaron Salter, Marilyn Bromberg","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Influencers are content creators who post online about their lives and can amass a significant following. Influencers can be dangerous by negatively affecting their followers' body image and marketing products in a deceptive way. The limited academic writings which consider influencer regulation note an incongruency between influencer conduct and the corresponding regulatory system. This has been recognised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission which has flagged potential reforms. Similarly, the United Kingdom is conducting a review in response to comparable issues and developing draft legislation, while France has introduced new laws to regulate the sector. This article capitalises on the current appetite for legislative reform and proposes to analyse the adequacy of the current regulatory framework for influencers with respect to protecting vulnerable consumers and provides recommendations for reform.</p>","PeriodicalId":45522,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Medicine","volume":"31 3","pages":"561-586"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142956187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Voluntary Assisted Dying and Conscientious Objection: An Analysis from Victoria, Australia.","authors":"Ronli Sifris","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article analyses qualitative empirical research conducted by this author to gain a deeper understanding of the rationale behind conscientious objection (CO) to voluntary assisted dying (VAD) and its impact on the operation of VAD in Victoria, Australia. It begins by providing an overview of the Australian legal approach to CO in the context of VAD. It then discusses the spectrum of attitudes that exist towards VAD, illuminating some of the nuance and complexity of the individual and institutional approaches. The article then focuses on the reasons behind CO, noting that there are a range of moral reasons why people may oppose VAD. Finally, the article turns to consider the impact of CO on patient access to VAD, concluding that CO is affecting patient access in Victoria, and that Victoria should modify its legal approach so as to balance the right to CO more appropriately against the legal right to access VAD.</p>","PeriodicalId":45522,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Medicine","volume":"31 3","pages":"539-554"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142956346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decisions about Medical Treatment and Care, the Legality Assumptions and Sovereign Power - Empowering Patients Out of the State of Bare Life?","authors":"Charles Lawson, Edwin Bikundo, Laurie Grealish, Todd Berry, Jayne Hewitt, Jo-Anne Todd","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The framing of patients making decisions about their medical treatment and care as traditional legal decisions, thresholds and formalities is a means to avoid legal liabilities through a rationalisation of decision-making, autonomy and choice. A credible account for the actual place of patients posits the sovereign power (founded in the works of Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben) of the health care professional deciding the state of exception - a discrete legal space where the authority of health care professionals is both lawful and beyond the law. This reveals that dealing with broadly conceived consent issues with more law, more process and procedure but without addressing the inherent legality assumptions that empower health care professionals will always be flawed. This section piece concludes that the resolution of consent issues is about a culture of consent rather than a frame of legal process and limiting legal liability.</p>","PeriodicalId":45522,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Medicine","volume":"31 3","pages":"483-504"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142956532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christopher Brook, Peter Trembath, Kerry J Breen, Jonathan Burdon
{"title":"Cough Syncope and Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents: Two Australian Cases.","authors":"Christopher Brook, Peter Trembath, Kerry J Breen, Jonathan Burdon","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cough syncope is an uncommon but well-recognised medical condition diagnosed primarily on the history provided by the sufferer. In situations where the sufferer is in control of a motor vehicle, syncope can lead to accidents involving death and injury. In the medico-legal setting, cough syncope can be a contested cause of such accidents. Here we report two recent Australian cases which illustrate the issues involved for legal and medical practitioners.</p>","PeriodicalId":45522,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Medicine","volume":"31 3","pages":"555-560"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142956525","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Denial of Desire for Death in Dementia: Why Is Dementia Excluded from Australian Voluntary Assisted Dying Legislation?","authors":"Amee Baird","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Euthanasia in the form of Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) is legal in all Australian States, but current eligibility criteria preclude access to people with dementia. This article discusses Australian VAD eligibility criteria that are problematic for people with dementia: (1) time until death within 12 months, (2) decision-making capacity for VAD, and (3) determination of intolerable suffering. Legislation in the Netherlands allows VAD for people with dementia. The challenges and philosophical issues raised by such cases are explored. It is proposed that the unique nature of dementia in its various forms warrants the formulation of dementia-specific VAD eligibility criteria. A case could be brought to challenge the denial of access to VAD of people with dementia on the basis that their exclusion is discriminatory and an abuse of human rights. If such a challenge was successful, it could form a common law precedent to allow people with dementia access to VAD.</p>","PeriodicalId":45522,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Medicine","volume":"31 2","pages":"386-402"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141499265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Insight and the Capacity to Refuse Treatment with Electroconvulsive Therapy.","authors":"Russ Scott, Steve Prowacki","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>All Australian jurisdictions have statutory provisions governing the use of electroconvulsive therapy. Cases in which the patient lacks insight into their psychotic illness and need for treatment and refuses to have ECT are particularly poignant. In Re ICO [2023] QMHC 1, the Queensland Mental Health Court considered whether a patient with a treatment-resistant psychotic illness had decision-making capacity to refuse ECT. The Court also considered whether the patient had been provided with an adequate explanation of the proposed treatment including the expected benefits, risks and adverse effects of ECT. As well as deciding whether ECT was appropriate in the circumstances, the Court considered whether there were alternative treatments including another trial of the oral antipsychotic clozapine. This article reviews issues relating to lack of insight in persons with psychotic illness and relevant considerations for determining capacity to decline ECT.</p>","PeriodicalId":45522,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Medicine","volume":"31 2","pages":"273-323"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141499267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dianne Nicol, Margaret Otlowski, Keeley Reade, Natalie Thorne, Clara Gaff
{"title":"Moving Genomics into the Clinic: Platforms for Implementing Clinical Genomic Data-Sharing in Ways That Address Ethical, Legal and Social Implications.","authors":"Dianne Nicol, Margaret Otlowski, Keeley Reade, Natalie Thorne, Clara Gaff","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This section explores the challenges involved in translating genomic research into genomic medicine. A number of priorities have been identified in the Australian National Health Genomics Framework for addressing these challenges. Responsible collection, storage, use and management of genomic data is one of these priorities, and is the primary theme of this section. The recent release of Genomical, an Australian data-sharing platform, is used as a case study to illustrate the type of assistance that can be provided to the health care sector in addressing this priority. The section first describes the National Framework and other drivers involved in the move towards genomic medicine. The section then examines key ethical, legal and social factors at play in genomics, with particular focus on privacy and consent. Finally, the section examines how Genomical is being used to help ensure that the move towards genomic medicine is ethically, legally and socially sound and that it optimises advances in both genomic and information technology.</p>","PeriodicalId":45522,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Medicine","volume":"31 2","pages":"258-272"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141499269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}