{"title":"Commentary on \"Ethical and Legal Dilemmas in Prolonged Physiologic Support After Brain Death in Previable Pregnancy\".","authors":"Linda C Fentiman","doi":"10.1017/jme.2026.10285","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2026.10285","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This commentary provides context and commentary on the article by April Dworetz et al., \"Ethical and Legal Dilemmas in Prolonged Physiologic Support after Brain Death in Previable Pregnancy,\" The <i>Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics</i> (2026).</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":"54 3","pages":"301-304"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149197454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"2025 Public Health Law Conference: Connection. Collaboration. Community.","authors":"Quang Huu Dang","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.10225","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2025.10225","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The 2025 Public Health Law Conference theme - Connection. Collaboration. Community. - acknowledges this critical time in public health - a time when survival and progress both require working together to best leverage laws and policies. This symposium issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics is dedicated to an examination of some of the critical topics discussed at this conference.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":"54 S1","pages":"1-2"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147693240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jeanne Ayers, Gnora Mahs, Margarita Northrop, Jeannette Raymond
{"title":"Health & Democracy: Democratizing Community Health Assessments.","authors":"Jeanne Ayers, Gnora Mahs, Margarita Northrop, Jeannette Raymond","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.10222","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2025.10222","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article explores the connection between health and democracy, positing that public health is rooted in political decisions and that improving health outcomes and advancing health equity requires strengthening inclusive, representative democracy. It describes the relationship between civic health, civic and voter participation, power, and health outcomes, and demonstrates that communities with higher rates of civic and voter participation are linked to better population health outcomes. The authors assert that public health practitioners have the opportunity and the responsibility to improve health by democratizing their practice and supporting policies and approaches which strengthen civic health and promote civic and voter participation. The authors also provide detailed stories from two health agencies - Wisconsin and Minnesota - illustrating these efforts in action and offer several strategies for how practitioners can incorporate this work into their scope of practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":"54 S1","pages":"3-9"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147693417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dignity and Abortion in Law, Philosophy, and Bioethics.","authors":"Eric Scarffe","doi":"10.1017/jme.2025.10179","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2025.10179","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Dignity has been a notoriously elusive concept to philosophers. Nevertheless, in the realms of politics, law, and policymaking, appeals to dignity are frequent, and do not always align with the understandings most commonly endorsed by the philosophical literature. This paper considers how \"dignity\" is frequently appealed to in ethical arguments about the permissibility of abortion, and argues that the judicial decisions related to reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights over the past 30 years in the United States offer deep insights into the nature of \"dignity\" that philosophers and other theorists ought to pay attention to. These insights not only have profound implications for our understanding of the nature of \"dignity,\" but also for ethical analysis more broadly.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"27-33"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13051241/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145240158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mitchell A Blount, Jammie Hopkins, Monica L Ponder, Ebony Johnson, Malaka Y Nzinga, Zakiyah Morris, Eniyah Baptiste, Sushana Lamsal, Emma B Paris, Shannan Young, Mark V Mooney, Maisha Standifer, Megan Douglas
{"title":"Advancing Commitment to Health Equity Through Community-Based Legal Epidemiology: A Case Study of Local Policy Reform.","authors":"Mitchell A Blount, Jammie Hopkins, Monica L Ponder, Ebony Johnson, Malaka Y Nzinga, Zakiyah Morris, Eniyah Baptiste, Sushana Lamsal, Emma B Paris, Shannan Young, Mark V Mooney, Maisha Standifer, Megan Douglas","doi":"10.1017/jme.2026.10248","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2026.10248","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Public policies contribute to structural racism and health inequities. To dismantle structural racism and advance health equity, methods aligning scientific evidence, community priorities, and political will are needed to implement equity-focused interventions. This study combined community-based participatory research and legal epidemiology methods to inform local policy in East Point, Georgia. The community informed a comprehensive policy approach to address social determinants of health (SDOH) and advance health equity and identified East Point's Comprehensive Plan Update as an opportunity to advance health equity through policy. Key findings informed a legal epidemiology study to assess variation in including equity and health equity in comprehensive plans across 32 jurisdictions. Limited adoption of equity and health equity provisions were found, revealing opportunities to inform the East Point policymaking process. Research findings were summarized and disseminated to the community and policymakers. In 2023, East Point adopted equity, health, and health equity into its comprehensive plan for the first time. This case study demonstrates that collaborative, multi-sector, community-centered approaches can support policy interventions that address historical race-based, health-harming policies, and thereby dismantle structural racism. Inclusion of health equity in East Point's comprehensive plan provides a foundation for future implementation of policies that address SDOH and health inequities.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"169-178"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147516101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mark Barnes, Marianna Bledsoe, Mayumi Kusunose, Rita Lawlor, Helen Morrin, Annette Schmid
{"title":"International Ethical Principles for Banking and Secondary Research Use of Human Biospecimens and Associated Data: The Seattle Principles.","authors":"Mark Barnes, Marianna Bledsoe, Mayumi Kusunose, Rita Lawlor, Helen Morrin, Annette Schmid","doi":"10.1017/jme.2026.10252","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2026.10252","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>International access to and sharing of biospecimens is critical to answer important questions about complex diseases, and to ensure the diversity in biospecimen collection necessary to advance science and develop therapies that benefit all. However, many challenges exist. These include the lack of harmonized ethical, legal, and policy frameworks regarding secondary uses of biospecimens and associated data; regulatory and policy hurdles; and differences in cultural perspectives and practices across regional and national jurisdictions.In this manuscript, a set of ethical principles is presented with the intent to address some of these challenges by ensuring better alignment in ethical practices related to biobanking and the global use of human biospecimens. In addition, these principles could serve as a basis for promoting more consistency among national regulations and policies. The ultimate goal is to develop an international framework for global biospecimen and data sharing.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"229-237"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147576100","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carlin F Aloe, Lisa Puglisi, Richard Marottoli, Andrea Silber, Rahul Vanjani, Ada M Fenick
{"title":"The Role of the Medical Champion in the Medical-Legal Partnership: A Delphi Study.","authors":"Carlin F Aloe, Lisa Puglisi, Richard Marottoli, Andrea Silber, Rahul Vanjani, Ada M Fenick","doi":"10.1017/jme.2026.10245","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2026.10245","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Medical-legal partnership (MLP) is an intervention embedding legal professionals within a clinical setting to address patients' health harming legal needs (HHLN). While much of the literature focuses on the role of the lawyer in the partnership, less is understood about the role of the clinician. Data were collected about MLP medical champions from workshop attendees at an MLP conference held by the Solomon Center at Yale Law School, a leader in health law. From the 107 concepts collected at the workshop, 40 mechanisms by which the medical champion can best serve an MLP were identified and ranked by expert MLP champions, using a Delphi method. Medical champions' relations with the legal team and with direct patient care were of high priority, in contrast with their role in larger scale advocacy. The findings from this study provide evidence that medical champions are a cornerstone of MLPs as they understand clinical workflows, are aware of patient population needs, and can support the multi-disciplinary MLP team to address HHLN. By gaining a deeper understanding of the potential responsibilities and actionable steps that a medical champion can undertake, it is possible to mitigate the challenges faced by MLPs and enhance their implementation and longevity.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"179-187"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147437121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Ethical Justifiability of Patient Restraint in Hospitals: Moving to a Public Health Ethics Approach.","authors":"Courtney Coyne, Rosalind McDougall","doi":"10.1017/jme.2026.10255","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2026.10255","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The use of restraint in hospital settings is divisive, and internationally there are calls for its elimination. However, this is at odds with the experience of many hospital staff, who consider restraint, at times, a \"necessary evil\". In this paper, we explore the definition of restraint and potential ethical justifications for its use. We argue that the current ethical literature employs two definitions of restraint - outcome-oriented and intent-oriented - neither of which successfully captures all ethically relevant features of the practice. We propose a new conceptualization of restraint which centers on the number of individuals impacted by an act of patient restraint - a continuum between therapeutic restraint and public-safety restraint. Understood in this way, neither the principlist nor human rights frameworks that dominate the current literature are appropriate for assessing the ethical legitimacy of restraint. We suggest that, given the similarities between restraint and public health interventions, the use of public health ethics principles to consider the ethical justifiability of restraint in hospitals is a potentially productive way forward in this controversial area.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"352-365"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147845482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"AI's Promise of Healthy Longevity: Exploring the Implications of Extended Lifespans Under International Law.","authors":"Jon Truby, Indira Dewi Kantiana","doi":"10.1017/jme.2026.10262","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2026.10262","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The World Health Organization has declared 2021-2030 the \"Decade of Healthy Ageing\", aiming for the best quality of life through health as the population ages. Beyond healthy ageing, scientists are adopting artificial intelligence technologies for longevity science which can foreseeably enable humans to routinely live to 120 years and beyond. With such breakthroughs within reach, the challenges associated with longevity need to be considered, from the impact on the social system to the possibility of an international law right to longevity, along with associated considerations such as on sustainability. This article questions whether there already is, or should be, an international human right to facilitate considerably extended lifespans, along with other relevant legal frameworks.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"377-383"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147787813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Joshua D Hauser, Aaron Seth Kesselheim, Rita Redberg
{"title":"Industry Exposure in Medical Training: The Case for a Conflict-Free Learning Environment.","authors":"Joshua D Hauser, Aaron Seth Kesselheim, Rita Redberg","doi":"10.1017/jme.2026.10271","DOIUrl":"10.1017/jme.2026.10271","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Conflicts of interest (COI) between physicians and for-profit companies have existed for centuries, but the last decade has dramatically increased their visibility through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Open Payments database. Despite growing documentation of COI in academic medical environments - where financial relationships are prevalent and industry payments to trainees exceed millions of dollars annually - formal COI policies and curriculum in US medical schools have stagnated or weakened since the last major wave of reform over a decade ago. The authors review the evidence linking industry interactions during medical training to favorable views of pharmaceutical marketing, greater propensity for continued industry engagement, and increased prescribing of promoted drugs and devices. The authors argue that medical schools and their governing bodies must implement and enforce meaningful COI policies, meeting at minimum the Association of American Medical Colleges' existing recommendations. The authors further recommend that the Liaison Committee on Medical Education require adherence to these policies for annual accreditation, that research curricula address the influence of funding sources on study design, and that the Open Payments database be integrated into medical training as a transparency tool. Strengthening COI education and policy is essential to ensure that the next generation of physicians learns in environments where patient-centered, evidence-based medicine guides decision-making.</p>","PeriodicalId":50165,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"417-419"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148901472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}