by Robert I. Field, Ethan Dombroski, Mary Kate McDevitt & Whitney A. Petrie
The development of genetic science and its clinical applications bring new ethical concerns over privacy along with practical concerns over the use and interpretation of genetic information. While genetic databases are helping clinicians to understand and treat a growing number of serious genetic conditions, they present risks of unauthorized disclosures of highly personal information. Their use in clinical care also raises practical concerns in the interpretation of ambiguous findings, the handling of unanticipated incidental findings, and the communication to patients of risks and uncertainties.
13 Drexel L. Rev. 321
by Jerry W. Markham
Securities and Exchange Commission Regulation Best Interest (RBI) sought to mitigate or remove conflicts of interest on the part of broker-dealers that receive transaction-based commissions. As this Article demonstrates, RBI will effectively force broker-dealers to abandon such compensation arrangements in favor of fixed-fee arrangements. This will reduce investment choices, limit access to personalized professional investment advice and adversely affect the quality of services.
13 Drexel L. Rev. 377
by Kelley Bregenzer
Fame and photography: the two go hand in hand. Celebrities and the press, more specifically, paparazzi, have always maintained a mutually beneficial—if often unpleasant—relationship. But the rise of social media has given celebrities more control over their image and dented the once prosperous paparazzi industry. Celebrities often share images of themselves taken by the paparazzi on their own social media accounts without licensing the photos from the photographers—who have long been recognized as the rightful authors of a photograph under federal copyright law. In the last few years, paparazzi photographers have begun to file copyright infringement claims against celebrities, fashion designers, and public relations firms for sharing unlicensed images on social media. Most of these cases have settled out of court, but celebrities, backed by the public, are starting to fight back.
13 Drexel L. Rev. 449
by Justine Fuga
Tobacco, lead paint, prescription opioids, and electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), once revered as innovative products, are now regarded as public nuisances. These public health epidemics share a similar history that has time and again repeated itself. In a sentence, the industry markets products with unanticipated long-term safety risks, combats or discredits emerging evidence of harm associated with the product, evades liability in personal injury or products liability lawsuits, and finally accepts responsibility when government officials file public nuisance lawsuits. While public nuisance lawsuits successfully respond to public nuisance products, this last resort, resource-intensive, backward-looking intervention fails public health. History does not have to repeat itself again. This Note proposes a technology assessment solution to break the epidemic cycle of public nuisance products at the first phase: revive the Office of Technology Assessment in the United States Patent and Trademark Office to proactively, cost-effectively, and preventively monitor long-term safety risks of consumer products.
13 Drexel L. Rev. 489
by Reece M. McGovern
Laws designed to address the consequences of crime scarcely acknowledge children whose parents are incarcerated. For instance, legislation providing rights and benefits to victims of crime defines victims in a way that excludes offenders’ children. The absence of government aid to children with incarcerated parents demonstrates a massive oversight affecting millions of our most vulnerable citizens each year.
The impact of parental incarceration is well-documented and devastating. Children who lose even one parent to incarceration miss out on critical emotional and mental support, face financial instability, are negatively socialized toward and distrust authority figures, and are at risk of entering an intergenerational cycle wherein they and their children are more likely to be poor and engage in criminal behavior.
13 Drexel L. Rev. 533