by Leslie P. Francis
That’s correct: unless your prescription for misoprostol meets strict new conditions, possession of the drug is now illegal in Louisiana. In late May 2024, Louisiana governor Jeff Landry signed a bill making misoprostol and mifepristone schedule IV drugs, the most highly regulated controlled substances. Violating the law may result in jail sentences or fines.
By Michael L. Millenson
The latest draft government strategic plan for health information technology pledges to support health information sharing among individuals, health care providers and others “so that they can make informed decisions and create better health outcomes.”
Those good intentions notwithstanding, the current health data landscape is dramatically different from when the organizational author of the plan, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, formed two decades ago. As Price and Cohen have pointed out, entities subject to federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements represent just the tip of the informational iceberg. Looming larger are health information generated by non-HIPAA-covered entities, user-generated health information, and non-health information being used to generate inferences about treatment and health improvement.
by Barbara Pfeffer Billauer
Legal pundits are predicting the imminent demise (or at least substantial enfeeblement) of the Chevron doctrine. Until recently, that case afforded substantial judicial deference to decisions made by administrative agencies if a statutory provision under its purview was ambiguous. Now two cases are before the Supreme Court challenging an agency interpretation regarding funding of statutorily required monitors on fishing boats. This development signals a “sea-change” is in sight for agency autonomy, as deference to agency decisions is being threatened.
Interviewed by William Leonard Pickard
George Church, PhD, is the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a founding member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.
His research efforts include the first direct genome sequencing method, collaborating in initiating the Human Genome Project, and creating the Personal Genome Project. He co-founded over 50 biotechnology companies as spin-offs from the Church Lab, including Veritas Genetics, Rejuvenate Bio, and Nebula Genomics. Church began Colossal Biosciences to de-extinct the woolly mammoth.
by Francis X. Shen, Susan M. Wolf, and Frances Lawrenz
The advent of highly portable MRI will transform brain research, but urgently requires ethical and legal guidance.
Rather than participants traveling to the MRI scanner, now the scanner can travel to them. This advance could enable research with remote and marginalized communities that have not previously been able to participate, and in doing so address the lack of representativeness and diversity in human neuroscience research.
by Victoria Litman, M.Div., J.D., LL.M.
On May 21, 2024, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in the Federal Register. This publication kicks off a 62-day comment period on a rule that would move marijuana to Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), classifying it as a substance with “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” The process of rescheduling may be long and is unlikely to create a pathway to federal compliance for state-legal marijuana businesses without further federal legislation. Ultimately, Congress likely will need to clarify the division of federal and state regulatory powers over cannabis.
By Marcelo Corrales Compagnucci
Extended Reality (XR) technologies like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR), are revolutionizing healthcare. These tools, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), are enhancing how medical professionals work across various specialties such as cardiology, pharmacy, and neuroscience, improving precision and efficiency in ways previously unimaginable. Tools like IBM Watson and DeepMind are already in use, with current applications in diagnosis, predictive analytics, and personalized treatment. Near-future advancements include AI in surgical robotics and real-time patient monitoring through wearables.
Stephanie Tabashneck, PsyD, JD, is a Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience at the Petrie-Flom Center and Center for Law, Brain and Behavior (CLBB) at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. A forensic psychologist and an attorney, she focuses her research, practice, and teaching on neural development in children and adolescents, substance use issues, and providing forensic evaluations and expert testimony. This Q&A, which has been condensed and edited for clarity, offers a glimpse into Dr. Tabashneck’s wide-ranging and dynamic career.
By James G. Hodge, Jr. and Jennifer L. Piatt
Surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court’s withdrawal of the longstanding constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on June 24, 2022, multiple state supreme courts have done their own “about face” on reproductive rights. Motivated perhaps by the infamous leaked decision in Dobbs, the Iowa Supreme Court reversed its 2018 decision finding abortion protections in the state constitution, concluding on June 17, 2022 that no such fundamental right exists. Following a January 2023 decision rejecting a 6-week statutory ban as violating the state’s constitution, a reconstituted South Carolina Supreme Court found the ban constitutional in August 2023. Florida’s Supreme Court protected abortion as a fundamental privacy right under the state constitution in 1989 only to reverse its view on April 1, 2024.
Most recently, on April 9, 2024 a majority of the Arizona Supreme Court resurrected an 1864 territorial law banning all abortions except to save the life of the pregnant woman in Planned Parenthood v. Hazelrigg. That decision thrust Arizona into the realm of 14 other states with the most stringent restrictions nationally – no abortions with virtually no exceptions.
Two years ago, the Kenyan High Court in Malindi decided PAK and Salim Mohammed v. Attorney General et al., affirming that the constitutional right to abortion is “fundamental.”
Approximately 2,600 people lose their lives to unsafe abortion in Kenya each year, with an additional 21,000 people requiring hospitalization. While the Kenyan Constitution, adopted in 2010, allows for abortion when the pregnant person’s life or health is at risk under Article 26(4), the Kenyan Penal Code still criminalizes it—a legal grey area creating “ambiguity, confusion, and stigma.
This article will describe the PAK decision and analyze it in line with trends in transnational abortion law.
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