1. LS435 – Unit 1 Procreation Scott's Notes

2. Today's Seminar Agenda Introductions Course Overview What is Bioethics? The Constitutional Right to Privacy Fetal-Maternal Decision Making DC v. Heller – the recent Supreme Court gun case

3. Introductions I will briefly chat about my background while you type a few words about yourself into the chat window. Who are you? Why are you taking this class? What’s the meaning of life? What’s your favorite food? What do you want from this class?

4. Course Overview Here’s the Official Course Description: “This course examines legal, ethical and political implications of biological and technological advances regarding human reproduction, fetal-maternal decision-making, surrogacy, human genetics, death and dying of children and adults, physician-assisted suicide, and medical research. The course will consider these issues from the position of stakeholders – patients, providers and government.” Briefly, let’s consider the differences between this course and LS320 – the health care law overview many of us had before.

5. Course Overview Part 2 Unit1: Procreation Unit 2: Procreation in a Brave New World Unit 3: Eugenics Unit 4: Eugenics Today Unit 5: Reading Week Unit 6: The Leftover Embryos Unit 7: Genetic Databases Unit 8: Death and Dying Unit 9: Justice & Resource Allocation Unit 10: Reflection

6. Discussion Board Rubrics 50% breadth and depth; [8 points possible] 25% timeliness & frequency; [4 points possible] 25% clarity organization grammar mechanics [4 points possible] (Add a few quick thoughts about Rubrics...)

7. Bioethics? Secular bioethics vs. Catholic medical ethics Why are the distinctions of interest? Catholic organization, law also influential Hippocratic school 300-400 BCE Modern bioethics starts after WW2 Nazi & Japanese medical experiments US medical experiments Formal birth of bioethics: 1968 Congress Is bioethics a science or a philosophy discussion?

8. The Constitutional Right to Privacy The United States Constitution guarantees a fundamental right of personal choice in matters of marriage and the bearing and raising of children. Such choices are protected from undue governmental interference. The right to privacy forms the foundation on which we build upon. As we discuss various aspects on using new technology, many plaintiffs will base their right to use that technology in this general right to privacy. Where does it come from? The right to privacy is not mentioned anywhere in the U.S. Constitution. Yet, it is something we hold most dear. The right to matters of marriage and procreation are so basic to our society that it is afforded protection. Some find this right to privacy in the Ninth Amendment, but others consider this to fall under the “penumbra” of the Bill of Rights. This “penumbra” language comes from Roe v. Wade.

9. Griswold v. Connecticut Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965). Defendants were convicted of violating the Connecticut birth control law. The Circuit Court in the Sixth Circuit, Connecticut, rendered judgments, and the defendants appealed. The Appellate Division of the Circuit Court affirmed, and defendants appealed. The Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, 151 Conn. 544, 200 A.2d 479, affirmed, and the defendants appealed. The Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Douglas, held that the Connecticut law forbidding use of contraceptives unconstitutionally intrudes upon the right of marital privacy.

10. Roe v. Wade Action was brought for a declaratory and injunctive relief respecting Texas criminal abortion laws which were claimed to be unconstitutional. A three-judge United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, 314 F.Supp. 1217, entered judgment declaring laws unconstitutional and an appeal was taken. The Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Blackmun, held that the Texas criminal abortion statutes prohibiting abortions at any stage of pregnancy except to save the life of the mother are unconstitutional; that prior to approximately the end of the first trimester the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman's attending physician, subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester the state may regulate abortion procedure in ways reasonably related to maternal health, and at the stage subsequent to viability the state may regulate and even proscribe abortion except where necessary in appropriate medical judgment for preservation of life or health of mother.

11. Maher vs. Roe Indigent women brought suit challenging a Connecticut regulation prohibiting the funding of abortions that were not medically necessary. The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, 380 F.Supp. 726 held that the Social Security Act required state funding of nontherapeutic abortions, but the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 522 F.2d 928, reversed. On remand, a Three-Judge District Court, 408 F.Supp. 660, held that the regulation denied equal protection and Connecticut Commissioner of Social Services appealed. The Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Powell, held that the equal protection clause did not require a state participating in the medicaid program to pay the expenses incident to nontherapeutic abortions for indigent women simply because it had made a policy choice to pay expenses incident to childbirth.

12. District of Columbia vs. Heller This is a landmark legal case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for private use. It is the first Supreme Court case in United States history to directly address whether the right to keep and bear arms is a right of individuals in addition to a collective right that applies only to state-regulated militias. Why would we consider a gun case in this class? Because the reasoning is similar to that in Roe vs. Wade but it is coming from the “strict constructionists.”

13. Unit 1 Assignment: Case Brief Choose one case from this week's readings: Griswold v. Conn. Roe v. Wade Maher v. Roe Brief the case and submit your brief to the Dropbox by the end of Unit 1. [There's a model case brief in doc sharing.] Facts – Issues – Holding – Reasoning – Dissent

14. Preview of Unit 2: Procreation What is IVF? The Uniform Parentage Act Surrogacy Parenting Assignment: Draft a Contract

15. Goodnight! We’ll be together again in six days and 23 hours!