April 2014 
Volume 2, Number 1

Banking on the Body
The Market in Blood, Milk, and Sperm in Modern America

Scientific advances and economic forces have converged to create something unthinkable for much of human history: a robust market in human body products. Every year, countless Americans supply blood, sperm, and breast milk to "banks" that store these products for later use by strangers in routine medical procedures. These ex-changes entail complicated questions. Which body products are donated and which sold? Who gives and who receives? And, in the end, who profits? In this eye-opening book, Associate Professor Kara Swanson traces the history of body banks from the nineteenth-century experiments that discovered therapeutic uses for body products to twenty-first-century websites that facilitate a thriving global exchange. Visit Amazon.com to pre-order (available in May).

LLM Program Welcomes Health Policy and Law Students

This year, Northeastern launched our new health policy and law specialization for attorneys interested in this dynamic, growing field. This in-depth program helps prepare lawyers who aim to work with health care providers and insurers, government regulatory agencies, firms handling pharmaceutical products liability and toxic tort cases, and NGOs and community-based organizations in the United States and abroad, among others. We are currently accepting applications for the 12-month program, starting in August.
Ahmed Appointed Petrie-Flom Visiting Scholar
Associate Professor Aziza Ahmed, an expert in health law, human rights, property law, international law and development, is currently a visiting scholar with the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, which promotes interdisciplinary analysis and legal scholarship. Her research is focused on legal and regulatory challenges in abortion access, the use of medical evidence and expertise in abortion jurisprudence, and examining the intersection between health and anti-trafficking laws.

Second-Year Student Wins Top Prize in The National Law Review Contest

Congratulations to Jordan Payne '15, winner of the The National Law Review's Winter 2014 Student Legal Writing Contest for her article, "Conceiving Real Protection: Paternalistic Surrogacy Laws & The Necessity of Massachusetts Legislation that Appropriately Protects the Gestational Surrogate."

Faculty in the News

A Drug that Should Be Easier to Get

In The New York Times, Professor Leo Beletsky writes, "One way to truly unleash the lifesaving potential of naloxone is to make it available without a prescription." (more)
About the Program on Health Policy and Law
Based in Northeastern University School of Law, the Program on Health Policy and Law draws from participating departments across Northeastern University to provide a rich context for students and researchers interested in public health law, health and human rights, health governance, intellectual property, bioethics, health care delivery law, and the regulation of our healthcare system. It is guided by faculty and staff with diverse areas of expertise and is affiliated with an array of university-wide institutes, programs and experiential learning opportunities.
Northeastern University Health-Related Institutes and Programs
Northeastern University School of Law Health-Related Dual-Degree Programs
 

Maker of $1,000 Hepatitis C Pill Looks To Cut Its Cost Overseas

In an interview with National Public Radio, Professor Brook Baker says, "Why can't we have a system that ensures that research and development is paid for without needing to recoup those costs through high prices - most of which is not plowed back into R&D?" (more)

Experts Increasingly Contemplate End of Smoking

"It's hard to do a ban on cigarettes because you're taking something away from people they have and are using. Once you have something, you hold tight," Professor Richard Daynard tells The Washington Post. (more)
Recent Selected Publications by Our Faculty
Events

Roundtable: Expanding Nurses' Scope of Practice: Where It's at in State Legislatures and the Trenches of Patient Care

April 18, 2014
Professor Timothy Hoff, of the D'Amore McKim School of Business, specializes in the area of health policy and management. Specifically, he studies health care implementation; physician attitudes and behavior; the organizational and cultural aspects of health care quality and patient safety; changing modes of professionalism; and health care innovation. Professor Hoff has taught a variety of health policy and management courses. 
RSVP to Claudia Zickell.

Discussion: Professor Nicholas Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor of Public Health, City University of New York and Hunter College
April 22, 2014 
The public is invited to his dynamic discussion with Nicholas Freudenberg, author of Lethal But Legal: Corporations, Consumption and Protecting Public Health. Professor Richard Daynard, president of the law school's Public Health Advocacy Institute, will provide comments. (download flyer)
April 25, 2014
Join prominent legal scholars and practitioners for this symposium exploring the relationship between free speech and reproductive autonomy. Panel discussions will focus on key issues, including the rights of physicians to speak freely to their patients, the rights of abortion protesters to have their message heard and the way that courts should review the clash of rights.
Register online 
 
Speakers include: 
  • Brigitte Amiri '99, Senior Staff Attorney, Reproductive Freedom Project, American Civil Liberties Union 
  • Glenn Cohen, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School 
  • Jessie Hill, Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research, Case Western Reserve University School of Law 
  • Robin Fretwell Wilson, Roger and Stephany Joslin Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law 
  • Ren�e Landers, Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School 
  • Julie Rikelman, Litigation Director, Center for Reproductive Rights 
  • Sonia Suter, Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School 
  • Martha Walz, President and CEO, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts

September 19-20, 2014

Re-imagining tobacco control as a means to truly end a public health problem that still kills more than 400,000 Americans each year is the next chapter in the movement that began 50 years ago when Surgeon General Luther Terry released the first "Report on Smoking and Health." This conference, hosted by Northeastern University School of Law's Public Health Advocacy Institute in conjunction with the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, will highlight federal, state and local actions that will lead to an end to tobacco-caused addiction, death and disease in this country.
RSVP to [email protected].  
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