This issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics is lovingly dedicated to the life, legacy, and memory of Charity Scott. Charity, an acclaimed professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law, passed away in 2023. Her colleagues at Georgia State and around the nation worked with JLME to create this special issue to celebrate her life and work. Unlike many memorial issues, this issue of JLME is not just a collection of papers on a topic that interested the honoree. It is instead a profound tribute to a much-loved colleague, exploring Charity’s interests, her passions, her work to unite different disciplines, her dedication to social justice, and a look into how Charity shaped the future of health law, and what that future will look like. This collection of papers also contains several deeply personal reminiscences of Charity and her life, and the influence she had on others. This influence, it should be said, was always a positive one. My own recollections of Charity as a friend and a reflection on the enormous influence she had on JLME and the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics appear as part of the collection. We hope you enjoy this tribute to our dear friend.
This issue also contains a number of incredibly interesting unsolicited articles, on topics as diverse as genetic research and data sharing, vaccine policy, telehealth, and a number of pieces on how our world today is being shaped by COVID-19. Most of these articles are accompanied by thoughtful commentaries, which ask probing questions of these articles and place them in the context of a wider literature. Finally, we also feature our usual array of our columns, including “Teaching Health Law,” the column Charity Scott first conceived of more than a decade ago. We hope you enjoy this collection of papers; please remember that we are always interested in seeing your unsolicited manuscripts and especially your symposium proposals. As always, thank you.
