Your Help Requested With Research Paper Topic (page 2)

Should drug addiction be treated as a medical issue not a legal issue? As a recovering alcoholic I'm very inolved in this. Addiction sucks up a huge amount of our medical costs (and our legal costs for that matter) and it is obvious that the war on drugs isn't working.

mummatron

Scully, that's exactly the point I was trying to make - you have a way of explaining things eloquently and getting your point across succinctly .

It made me think that maybe if she wanted to, JT would find it more useful to focus on that one particular drug (probably something that none of her cohort would consider) rather than taking a more generalised approach.

BTW, I met Jack Newman at a conference several years ago - I'd say he was a nice guy, but he hates nurses.

Sadly true of many consultants...the OB/GYNs and Paeds I've had dealings with have displayed this attitude in front of me re: nurses and midwives.

JT, if this is something which you're interested in pursuing for your paper, feel free to contact me for the UK perspective. I've personally had it prescribed as the mother of a sick baby, so can offer a 1st hand account for your appendices of how various medical personel will circumvent the drug licensing regulations and the procedure/protocol that UK maternity wards/units use to go about getting it prescribed.

Band on the Run

Justicia,

I spent time on IE to no avail. Basically, you need to clarify if American law is necessary. It might be fascinating to read how another common law country grapples with medicine and regulation. I would use Lexis or Westlaw and search for law review articles with Medicine, Regulation, Policy in their titles. Skimming the first paragraphs, it should not make much time to find something interesting.Focus on what areas of medicine are heavily regulation or where regulation has been lax compared to the past.

The current shortage of vital drugs is great b/c it shows where regulation utterly failed. If you need to fill cocntent, FDA creation and policy can stretch the paper. How is a short supply allocated? I'd pretend I was representing each player in the story. Individuals with no access to drugs, those who somehow managed to obtain drug reserves, clinical doctors, FDA administrators, pharmaceutial co. execs. There will be a lot of background info. The key would be to focus on regulation, rather than the matter as a whole. Oh, how do other industrialized nations handle this problem? Does any state law apply? Use other countries as a lab for the correct policy, the ways certain states are used for labs before policy is broadened on a natoinwide basis.

Have you thought of getting in touch with a medical school connected to your school? I don't think a prof. would mind two to three minutes of their time. Research assistants could be asked. Of course, you want a sexy topic with controversy.

It is good that the prof is approving it. He won't let you research something that has no legs. When he approves the topic, ask if he has any suggestions to bolster it. I don't view it as censorship but as a means to get a good grade. Oh, pay attention to what he lectures. I used to cite my profs. as sources and they loved it. I always received a "great point," "excellent point." Become interested in his interests. If there is a casebook, see what areas it addresses.

Ah, I miss school so much. Enjoy it while you have it. My dream was to practice and then teach at a decent school.

Justitia Themis

Drug regulation, pharmaceutical companies, OTCs--VERY fertile ground. And yes Mum, since I have only 35 pages, I would need to narrow the subject to probably one drug. If I choose this topic, I will email you; thank you for the offer. JeffT--addiction--that's a really good angle. I could even take that into employment law and how far accomodations must go.

Band--I too was thinking about how the regulatory scheme completely failed, but thank you for reminding me about surveying other countries. We have UW Medical Center, which is a research hospital, so I'm sure someone would speak with me. And yes, I learned this first year to totally disregard the professor when he or she says that they are NOT looking for you to parrot what they say. That is EXACTLY what they are looking for. However, there will not be much lecturing. This is seminar course so it meets only for a couple of hours each week.

jwfacts

I am surprised no one has mentioned JWs and blood yet. Should the government intervene in cases of religious ideologies directing followers to avoid lifesaving treatments.

Justitia Themis

Jwfacts: I thought about blood transfusions when I enrolled in the class, but I'm not sure it would qualify since the subject lacks the required "regulatory" aspect.

botchtowersociety

It seems the class will be focusing on regulation and medicine. Any ideas?

This is a great subject to write a paper on.

I would write about the unintended harm our regulatory system does to the development and delivery of medicine.

http://www.fdareview.org/harm.shtml

I would also cover the concept of "regulatory capture" and how it applies to the pharmaceutical industry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

I recommend reading economist Tyler Cowen on the subject as well. This is his blog:

http://marginalrevolution.com/

Alex Tabarrok also contributes to the blog.

And Cowen he has some articles published in the NYT on the subject.

Band on the Run

Justicia,

Have you noted how 1L profs say not to mention case names, only cite the holding? When people looked at their finals, those who cited many case names had much better scores than those who relied upon the prof's instruction.

My gf turned in a legal writing paper that was to be no more than 10 pages. She received a terrible grade so she headed up to his office to read the Honors papers. The Honors papers were 30 pages long on average. She confronted the prof and he said tough luck. It was never her idea to only write ten pages.

Justitia Themis

Update:

My professor is allowing me to write on JWs, blood transfusion, valid consent, and the mature minor doctrine. She is very excited about the paper and immediately said that something like that would get published, especially with my "inside" perspective.

She knows her stuff about consent; she worked on Clinton's advisory board that reviewed and proposed further actions regarding the Guatemalan debacle wherein we "studied" human "volunteers" and syphillis.

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