TECHNOLOGY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND EQUALITY (INDL9235)
2 or 3 credits. Seminar.

This seminar will focus on recent legal efforts to restrict (and encourage) controversial medical technologies. Case studies will include 1) stem cell and genetic engineering research, 2) global access to "essential medicines" (e.g., AIDS treatments), and 3) Medicare coverage decisions (i.e., how this social insurance program decides whether to pay for advanced procedures). Readings will include basic journalistic and philosophic accounts of the controversies involved, and primary and secondary legal materials. Students with a background in intellectual property law, health care law, or administrative law should find the seminar particularly rewarding.

Seminar participants will be expected to write a paper advocating for or against a regulation (or proposed regulation) related to the seminar topic.