Program Development Committees Established

The response was overwhelming to the recent announcement concerning the creation of the Society's new Program Development Committees. Over one hundred members have volunteered and those who expressed their thoughts agreed this was a significant step for the Society.

Committees are being formed to focus on the areas of: hospital law, medical malpractice, risk management and utilization review, health care for children, health care for the elderly, mental health, nursing, and workers compensation/occupational medicine.

Each committee is multidisciplinary and geographically diverse, and is charged with developing and organizing periodic educational meetings in its respective field. The focus of each meeting, its content, and faculty selection are the primary responsibilities. Complete rosters for each committee will be circulated in the near future.

In addition to their work in planning the Society's educational programs, it is hoped that these program development committees will identify problems and issues to which the Society could make significant contributions. Research and surveys on current problems could be organized by the committees, resulting in educational position papers issued in the name of the Society.

In addition to their work in planning the Society's educational programs, it is hoped that these program development committees will identify problems and issues to which the Society could make significant contributions. Research and surveys on current problems could be organized by the committees, resulting in educational position papers issued in the name of the Society.

The focus of the abortion debate in the United States tends to be on whether and at what stage a fetus is a person. I believe this tendency has been unfortunate and counterproductive. Instead of advancing dialogue between opposing sides, such a focus seems to have stunted it, leaving advocates in the sort of I did not—You did too impasse we remember from childhood. Also reminiscent of that childhood scene has been the vain attempt to break the impasse by appeal to a higher authority. Thus, the pro-choice forces hoped they had proved the pro-life forces wrong by having had the Supreme Court of the United States decide in Roe v. Wade that a fetus is not a person for purposes of the fourteenth amendment. Now the pro-life forces are trying to prove the pro-choice forces wrong by passing legislation or a constitutional amendment that declares a fetus to be a person after all

Antitrust challenges to agreements between hospitals and physicians who provide patient services have become one of the most common types of antitrust litigation in the past few years. Two recent decisions by different circuit courts of appeal highlight the legal and medical principles on which such disputes will be decided.

In August 1982, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction entered in favor of an individual anes-thesiologist who had complained that after an anesthesia group terminated her employment, the hospital wrongfully refused to allow her to continue to serve patients. The Seventh Circuit, in Dos Santos v. Columbus-Cuneo- Cabrini Medical Center, expressed serious doubt whether under antitrust analysis, a single hospital could ever be treated as a distinct market for the purchase and sale of health care services. The court remanded the case to the federal district court, where it is still pending.

Suits for negligence in the area of child protection have become frequent as reporting of child abuse and neglect has increased. This article begins with various theories and defenses raised in specific cases, and briefly examines the problem of inadequate legal representation for the child. An additional section notes various policy issues for lawyers and the courts.

Child protection has become a multidisciplinary field, and therefore social workers, doctors, police officers and mental health professionals have been held to be negligent in carrying out duties to children. The diagnostic professions of medicine and mental health are often involved early in child protection proceedings because of legal requirements for diagnosis and reporting. Social workers and police officers have been charged with failure to respond appropriately to reports of child abuse. Cases of inadequate selection of, or monitoring of placements into, foster homes are also associated with social workers. This section will consider these cases, and discuss various defenses raised.

The guidelines for the nursing staff of a health care facility in Boston include the following statement: