This post originally appeared on Harvard Law Bill of Health on February 5, 2021. Recently, media reported that Zheng Shuang, a popular Chinese actress, commissioned two surrogates with boyfriend Zhang Hang, and then allegedly decided, seven months into the pregnancies, that she did not want to become...
Author: Katherine Drabiak, J.D.
Tempering the Flames When the World is on Fire
posted by: Katherine Drabiak, J.D.
August 13, 2020
This post initially appeared on Medium on June 30, 2020. This June many Americans were poised to take a collective sigh as some states discussed plans for reopening and lifting Stay at Home Orders. Americans struggled with lingering anxiety of COVID-19, while also facing economic devastation,...
Wisconsin Supreme Court Strikes Down Safer at Home Order
posted by: Katherine Drabiak, J.D.
June 25, 2020
This post originally appeared on Harvard Law Bill of Health on June 10, 2020 here. The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently struck down the state’s Safer at Home Order, calling it “unlawful, invalid, unenforceable.” Wisconsin Gov. Evers, politicians, and the media responded with outrage, alleging the decision would “throw the state into...
Lessons from One Child Nation for Health Policy
posted by: Katherine Drabiak, J.D.
February 6, 2020
This post originally appeared on Harvard Law Bill of Health on February 5, 2020 here. The acclaimed One Child Nation, streaming on Amazon Prime, provides a haunting look at the reasoning, implementation, and consequences behind China’s (now revised) One Child Policy. Director Nanfu Wang expertly weaves together interviews from...
Congressional Appropriations and Human Germline Modification
posted by: Katherine Drabiak, J.D.
September 25, 2019
In summer 2019, the Congressional Appropriations Committee voted to reinstate a rider to the Consolidated Appropriations Act that prohibits the FDA from reviewing clinical applications in which a human embryo would be intentionally created or modified to include a heritable genetic modification. Prior to this vote,...
California Law to Restrict Medical Vaccine Exemptions Raises Thorny Questions Over Control
posted by: Katherine Drabiak, J.D.
This post originally appeared in The Conversation on September 24, 2019 published here. California passed a law on Sept. 9, 2019 designed to curb the number of medical exemptions issued for childhood vaccinations. Called SB 276, it restricts these exemptions from mandatory vaccines for children attending...
Measles Outbreaks Show Legal Challenges of Balancing Personal Rights and Public Good
posted by: Katherine Drabiak, J.D.
May 9, 2019
This post originally appeared on The Conversation on April 11, 2019. The measles outbreaks continue to spread, with New York City declaring a public health emergency and requiring people in four ZIP codes to have their children vaccinated or face penalties, including a fine of US$1,000 and or...
REPOST: Civil Society Statement to the Organizers of the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing
posted by: Katherine Drabiak, J.D.
January 23, 2019
This post originally appeared on the Center for Genetics and Society’s website on November 28, 2018. To add your signature, please sign here or email your name and affiliation to info@geneticsandsociety.org . The undersigned individuals and organizations wish to express our dismay and outrage at He Jiankui’s claims of creating...
Toxic Breastmilk: When Substance Abuse Relapse Means Death for Baby
posted by: Katherine Drabiak, J.D.
This post originally appeared on the Harvard Law Bill of Health on November 15, 2018.http://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2018/11/15/toxic-breastmilk-when-substance-abuse-relapse-means-death-for-baby/ Recently, a nursing mother in Pennsylvania made national headlines when her infant died from ingesting a combination of fatal drugs through breastmilk. According to the coroner’s report, the infant died from a combination...
Public Comments to Singapore’s Bioethics Advisory Committee on Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy
posted by: Katherine Drabiak, J.D.
July 26, 2018
In the Spring of 2018, Singapore issued a call for Public Comments on the topic of whether it should repeal the country’s current prohibition against germline modification of embryos and permit an exception for Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy. See the story here and here. ...