2024 Annual Lecture: "When Misfortune Becomes Injustice: Evolving Human Rights Struggles For Health And Social Equity"
Presented by Dr. Alicia Ely Yamin, Senior Fellow on Global Health and Rights at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, on听March 11th, 2024, from 4pm - 6pm in Room 100 (Moot Court), New Chancellor Day Hall (3660 Peel Street)
In this talk, Dr. Yamin discussed the progress and challenges in deploying human rights to advance health and social equality over recent decades. Alicia Ely Yamin considered theory and firsthand experience to show how evolving legal norms, empirical knowledge, and development paradigms interacted in the realization of health rights and challenged us to consider why these advances failed to produce greater equality within and between nations. Dr. Yamin drew on crucial lessons learned about the state of global health equity and public health systems during the COVID-19 pandemic, which demonstrated just how incompatible the current institutionalized world order鈥攂ased on neoliberal, financialized capitalism鈥攚as with one in which the rights of diverse people around the globe could be realized. Dr. Yamin argued that transformative human rights praxis in health called for addressing issues of structural inequality and political economy and working across disciplinary silos through networks and social movements.
Alicia Ely Yamin JD MPH PhD is a Lecturer on Law and the Senior Fellow on Global Health and Rights at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School; Adjunct Senior Lecturer on Health Policy and Management at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; and Senior Advisor on Human Rights and Health Policy at the global health justice organization, Partners In Health.听
Known globally for her trans-disciplinary work in relation to economic and social rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, the right to health, and the intersections between development paradigms and human rights, Yamin鈥檚 career has bridged academia and activism. She has lived in Latin America and East Africa for much of her professional life and worked with local advocacy organizations, including co-founding a program on health and human rights in the Asociaci贸n Pro Derechos Humanos (Lima, Peru; 1999).听
Yamin was appointed by the UN Secretary General as one of ten international experts to the Independent Accountability Panel for Women鈥檚, Children鈥檚 and Adolescents鈥� Health in the Sustainable Development Goals (2016-2021). Yamin has served on numerous other UN, WHO and other global expert committees. She currently serves on the WHO鈥檚 Technical Advisory Group on Health Technology Assessments; the WHO Global Advisory Group on Legislating Maternal Perinatal Death Surveillance; the joint World Bank/Norwegian Institute for Public Health/Bergen Centre on Ethics and Priority Setting project on 鈥楬ealth Financing for Universal Health Coverage鈥�; the Lancet Commission on Arctic and Northern Health; and as Co-Chair on the Interim Steering Committee of the Global Public Investment Network (GPIN).听
Yamin holds Juris Doctor and Master鈥檚 in Public Health degrees from Harvard University, and a Doctorate in Law from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. She has published multiple books and over 160 articles in law and policy journals, as well as peer-reviewed public health journals, in both English and Spanish. A revised and substantially expanded edition of her latest monograph, When Misfortune becomes Injustice: Evolving Human Rights Struggles for Health and Social Equality, is due out from Stanford University Press in 2023.
2023 Annual Lecture: 鈥淭omorrow鈥檚 Biolaw: Judicial Plasticity and Digital Complexity?鈥�
Presented by Dr. Bartha Maria Knoppers, full professor, Canadian Research Chair in Law and Medicine, and Director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy, on Thursday, January 19, 2023 4:15-5:45PM EST, Moot Court (NCDH Room 100), 3660 Peel Street.
From the Hippocratic oath to the Nuremberg Code, the Declaration of Helsinki, and the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, biomedical advances have been filtered through and interpreted against these ethical norms. Moreover, the focus of scientific research has moved beyond individuals, clinical trials, and rare diseases to also include whole populations and communities under the banner of serving group interests and to better understand the evolution and future our human species. Citizens are being asked to contribute to ongoing international mapping of the human genome, to national biobanks and population studies that serve as resources for future unspecified research for others. Indeed, alongside traditional discovery science has emerged a new infrastructure science. Yet, also percolating are bioengineering, gene editing and regenerative medicine efforts that challenge classical legal dualisms and divides such as person-property, animal-human, or living-dead. How plastic is or will be the framing of the 鈥渓egal鈥� human?
Parallel to the legal challenges raised by this new biology and infrastructure science are those of information technologies and their ensuing probabilistic, digital complexity. Stratification based on population data may well serve to ensure targeted resource allocation and thus rescue the ongoing sustainability of our universal health care systems, but currently, the use of polygenic risk scores may be misleading. Moreover, treatments, drugs and devices premised on databases that are not representative of different ancestries and of human diversity are equally harmful. Contribution by all citizens to variant databases is essential to their use in diagnoses and interpretation but where and on whom does the responsibility to contribute one鈥檚 health data to ensure quality and safety lie? Quid, the algorithms that feed m-health and medical devices? Finally, clinical genomic testing is already in use in the health care setting in some countries but raises the issue of potential duties to family members and data privacy and confidentiality. Data may be the new prevention, the new treatment, but can we accept its dynamic, complex and 鈥渆pigenetic鈥� nature?
Dr. Bartha Maria Knoppers, PhD (Comparative Medical Law) is Full Professor, Canada Research Chair in Law and Medicine, Director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at 平特五不中. She was the Chair of the Ethics and Governance Committee of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (2009-2017) and Co-Chair of the Regulatory and Ethics Workstream of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (2013-2019). She also helped draft the OECD Recommendation on Health Data Governance (2017), was appointed to the International Commission on the Clinical Use of Human Germline Genome Editing (2020), and currently co-chairs the Ethics Working Group of the Human Cell Atlas (2018-2022). She holds four Doctorates Honoris Causa and is a Fellow of the AAAS, the Hastings Center of Bioethics, the Canadian Academy Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada and of Quebec, and recipient of the Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research (2019), the Till and McCulloch Award for Science Policy (2020) and the Lifetime Achievement Award, Canadian Bioethics Society (2021).
The Intersect of Health and the Law: An Indigenous Journey - RGHL annual lecture with Senator Yvonne Boyer
15 September 2021, 16:00 to 18:00, Maxell Cohen Moot Court / online
Le 15 septembre dernier, la s茅natrice Yvonne Boyer a donn茅 la conf茅rence annuelle du Groupe de recherche en Sant茅 et droit dans un format virtuel-hybride, depuis le tribunal-茅cole de la Facult茅 de droit de 平特五不中.
Lors de cette pr茅sentation 茅ducative et inspirante, Madame Boyer a discut茅 de sa recherche sur la st茅rilisation forc茅e des femmes autochtones, ainsi que ses efforts en tant que s茅natrice pour mettre fin 脿 cette pratique inhumaine. Elle a aussi partag茅 comment son exp茅rience et celle de ses proches, en tant que femmes m茅tis, influencent son approche 脿 la sant茅, au droit, et 脿 leur intersection.
Merci 脿 notre auditoire de s'锚tre joint 脿 nous!
听
Brain Injuries in Sports: from Awareness to Action
15 January 2020, 13h-14h30, New Chancellor Day Hall, Maxwell Cohen Moot Court
Le 15 janvier dernier, plus d鈥檜ne centaine de membres de la communaut茅 mcgilloise et de la communaut茅 juridique ont particip茅 脿 notre conf茅rence annuelle.
Ken Dryden (LLB'73), lawyer, former member of Parliament, and former goalie of the Montreal Canadiens shared his thoughts on the role of the law in preventing brain injuries in sports. Drawing from his personal experience, he explained why and how we could influence current practices and regulations in sports. He concluded his presentation with the message that it is more important for us to be focusing on preventing this type of injury, rather than developing better diagnosis and treatment tools.
Thank you, Mr. Dryden, for a presentation that was greatly appreciated by the large audience!
Pills for Prejudice: Implicit Bias and the Perils of Biologizing Racism
24 October 2018, 16h30-18h, Maxwell Cohen Moot Court
The 平特五不中 Research Group on Health and Law was pleased to host , Professor of Law at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, for its Annual Lecture. His talk, entitled Pills for Prejudice: Implicit Bias and the Perils of Biologizing Racism, critically evaluated trends that may reduce understandings of racism to a mere biological phenomenon of mental health to be addressed primarily through individualized biomedical interventions 鈥� rather than as a social problem for which the entire polity bears responsibility.
About the speaker
Jonathan Kahn is the James E. Kelley Professor of Law at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. He holds a Ph.D. in U.S. History from Cornell University and a J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law, U. of California, Berkeley. His current research focuses on the intersections of law and biotechnology, with particular attention to how regulatory mandates intersect with scientific, clinical and commercial practice in producing legal understandings of race and racism in American society. He is the author of Race in a Bottle: The Story of BiDil and Racialized Medicine in a Post-Genomic Age (Columbia University Press, 2012). His newest book is Race on the Brain: What Implicit Bias Gets Wrong About the Struggle for Racial Justice (Columbia University Press, 2018).
La gestation pour autrui et ses implications en droit belge: De la pratique actuelle vers un 茅ventuel encadrement l茅gal?
28 mars 2017, 16h15-18h15, NCDH 312
La conf茅rence annuelle du GRSD sur la sant茅 et le droit, coorganis茅e cette ann茅e avec la Chaire de recherche du Canada sur la culture collaborative en droit et en politique de la sant茅 脿 l'Universit茅 de Montr茅al, a 茅t茅 prononc茅e par听Genevi猫ve Schamps, Professeure 脿 l鈥橴niversit茅 catholique de Louvain (Belgique).
搁茅蝉耻尘茅
Depuis plusieurs ann茅es, la gestation pour autrui fait l鈥檕bjet de discussions au sein de la soci茅t茅 belge. Sans 锚tre interdite ou express茅ment autoris茅e par le l茅gislateur, elle est pratiqu茅e en Belgique et des Belges y ont 茅galement recours 脿 l鈥櫭﹖ranger. M锚me si une l茅gislation f茅d茅rale r茅git les activit茅s de procr茅ation m茅dicalement assist茅e, dont le don de gam猫tes ou d鈥檈mbryons surnum茅raires, des incertitudes juridiques existent dans le cadre de la gestation pour autrui.
Dans la derni猫re d茅cennie, un grand nombre de propositions de loi ont 茅t茅 d茅pos茅es, dans le sens d鈥檜ne autorisation de la gestation pour autrui, accompagn茅e d鈥檜ne interdiction de la commercialisation ou de l鈥檌nterm茅diation. Les modalit茅s des r茅glementations propos茅es varient toutefois selon les textes. Lire la suite...
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and the Courts: a Failure of Access to Real Justice for People with Severe Disabilities
2 f茅vrier 2016, 16h15-18h15, Salle du Tribunal-茅cole Maxwell-Cohen (NCDH 100)
Le Groupe de recherche en sant茅 et droit accueillait l'honourable Ian Binnie, qui nous a entretenu sur les pr茅jug茅s juridiques rencontr茅s par les personnes souffrant de troubles caus茅s par l'alcoolisation f艙tale (ETCAF).
Abstract
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) covers a range of disabilities caused by pre-natal exposure to alcohol. Its effects can include severe cognitive and behavioural deficits that surface not only in criminal proceedings but every judicial context from custody disputes to welfare and guardianship. FASD often manifests itself in the inability of victims to organize their lives, control their actions and learn from bad outcomes. Often associated in the media with some aboriginal populations, FASD is in fact estimated to affect 2% to 5% of all newborns in Europe and North America. Much more could be done to alleviate the legal prejudice created by this disability.
The speaker
The Honourable Ian Binnie served for nearly 14 years as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, where he authored over 170 opinions, including leading cases in expert evidence, and many aspects of constitutional, criminal and administrative law.
Prior to his judicial appointment, he served as the Deputy Minister of Justice for the Government of Canada and spent many years in private practice, regularly appearing before the Supreme Court on a range of constitutional, civil and criminal matters. Mr. Binnie was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2012. He has received the CCLA Civil Liberties Award (2013), the Toronto Lawyers Association's Award of Distinction (2012), and the University of Toronto's Distinguished Alumnus Award (2011).
He is currently a Commissioner at the International Commission of Jurists, chairperson at the Internal Justice Council of the United Nations, and counsel at the Toronto firm Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin. In 2013, Mr. Binnie chaired the Institute of Health Economics鈥� first-ever Consensus Development Conference on Legal Issues of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
How Law Facilitated Pharmaceutical Fraud and How It Could Save Us
Wednesday, February 25, 2015, 16h-18h, Maxwell-Cohen Moot Court (NCDH 100)
Le Groupe de recherche en sant茅 et droit a l'honneur de vous inviter 脿 sa Conf茅rence 2015 sur la sant茅 et le droit, laquelle sera prononc茅e cette ann茅e par le professeur Trudo Lemmens, titulaire de la Chaire Scholl en droit et politique de la sant茅 脿 l'Universit茅 de Toronto.
Abstract
Since Thalidomide, the legal regime introduced to improve pharmaceutical product safety and efficacy has generated new administrative, industrial and scientific practices. These practices, in combination with a host of social, cultural and scientific developments, including the emphasis on evidence-based medicine, have strengthened industry鈥檚 grip over pharmaceutical knowledge production. Statutory law and regulation have thereby facilitated fraud and misrepresentation, while industry鈥檚 growing control over scientific knowledge has also undermined the integrity of traditional tort mechanisms that could offer compensation to those affected by these practices.
Professor Lemmens discussed these developments and briefly explore the strength and limits of some legal tools aimed at curbing this trend, paying particular attention to recent legal skirmishes related to transparency and access to data. Considering the central role of scientific knowledge and the impact of health care products on physical and mental integrity, he argued that states have a human rights obligation to strengthen independent scientific knowledge production.
Paying for Health Impact
11 October 2013
The 平特五不中 Research Group on Health and Law (RGHL), in collaboration with the Institute for Social and Health Policy (IHSP), had the pleasure of welcoming renowned philosopher Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University for the听6th Annual RGHL Lecture. Professor Pogge鈥檚 lecture, 鈥淧aying for Health Impact鈥�, discussed an innovative idea, the Health Impact Fund (HIF), a mechanism intended to improve access to new medicines worldwide.
Professor Pogge explained how the HIF would give pharmaceutical innovators the option to be rewarded according to the incremental health impact of their product rather than through a patent-protected mark-up. This way, the HIF aims to stimulate the development of high-impact medicines (especially for currently neglected diseases), ensure their availability at low cost, and encourage innovators to market such medicines with the aim of reducing the global disease burden.
Abstract
One-third of all human lives end in early death from poverty-related causes. Many of these premature deaths are avoidable through global health system reforms, including to the existing patent regime. The latter provides incentives for the development and distribution of new medicines; but it also leaves gaps, especially in poor regions. The Health Impact Fund (HIF) is a mechanism intended to fill these gaps and to improve access to new medicines worldwide.
The HIF would give pharmaceutical innovators the option to be rewarded according to the incremental health impact of their product rather than through a patent-protected mark-up. The HIF would stimulate the development of high-impact medicines (especially for currently neglected diseases), would ensure availability at low cost, and would encourage innovators to market such medicines with the aim of reducing the global disease burden.
The feasibility of this reform shows that the existing medical-patent regime is severely unjust. Professor Pogge will (a) introduce the HIF proposal and its moral justification, (b) discuss its implementation, funding, and economic viability, (c) explain its advantages for pharmaceutical firms as well as the benefits for the health and welfare of affluent and poor populations and (d) report on efforts to pilot the HIF idea in particular jurisdictions.
Equality and Health: Reaching for Resolution in the Realms of Disability Rights?
30 January 2013
The fifth Annual Lecture in Health and Law was presented by Anna Lawson, Deputy Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Disability Studies, University of Leeds.
Ms Lawson's lecture reflected on the relationship between the concepts of equality and health in the disability context. It considered ways in which the demands of 鈥渉ealth鈥� have often been used to override those of 鈥渆quality鈥�. As well as having profound implications for the lives of disabled people, this has had significant political and theoretical repercussions. The harmful impact of neglecting the demands of equality on the health of disabled people was also considered.
The lecture concluded by a reflection on the extent to which tensions between 鈥渆quality鈥� and 鈥渉ealth鈥� have been resolved, and on what factors, if any, are contributing to achieving greater reconciliation. This discussion was set against the backdrop of international developments and, in particular, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This event was organized in collaboration with 平特五不中's Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.
脡volution du droit de la procr茅ation assist茅e: La bio茅thique 脿 la fran莽aise
18 janvier 2012
G 脿 D: Jean-Louis Beaudoin, Fr茅d茅rique Dreifuss-Netter et Nicolas Kasirer avant la conf茅rence.
La quatri猫me Conf茅rence annuelle en sant茅 et droit s'est av茅r茅e un plein succ猫s cette ann茅e.
La pr茅sence de Madame Fr茅d茅rique Dreifuss-Netter, conseill猫re 脿 la premi猫re chambre civile de la Cour de cassation en France, a attir茅 une centaine de personnes, un public mixte compos茅 d鈥櫭﹖udiants, de professeurs, d鈥檃vocats et de membres de la Cour d鈥檃ppel du Qu茅bec et de la Cour sup茅rieure.
Madame Dreifuss-Netter, en charge aujourd鈥檋ui des affaires de responsabilit茅 m茅dicale de la Cour, est une bio茅thicienne et sp茅cialiste du droit m茅dical renomm茅e en France gr芒ce 脿 une longue carri猫re universitaire pr茅c茅dant sa nomination 脿 la Cour.
Apr猫s le mot d鈥檕uverture prononc茅 par L鈥橦onorable Nicholas Kasirer, Madame Dreifuss-Netter a donn茅 une conf茅rence impressionnante et stimulante intitul茅e 鈥溍塿olution du droit de la procr茅ation assist茅e: La bio茅thique 脿 la fran莽aise鈥�. Le mot de cl么ture a 茅t茅 prononc茅 par l鈥檋onorable Jean-Louis Baudouin.
Just Dying: A Discussion of Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide and the Law
13 January 2011
Jocelyn Downie, Canada Research Chair in Health Law & Policy and Professor in the Faculties of Law and Medicine at Dalhousie University, delivered a lecture on euthanasia, assisted suicide and the law on January 13, 2011.
In this talk, Jocelyn Downie reviewed the state of end of life law and policy in Canada and offered up a position on what Quebec (and other jurisdictions at various levels of government) could and should do in response to calls for the decriminalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Read the article posted on Wednesday, January 26, 2011, in the 平特五不中 Reporter: , by Pascal Zamprelli.
Meeting the Basic Survival Needs of the World鈥檚 Least Healthy People: Toward a Framework Convention on Global Health
25 March 2010
On March 25, 2010, the Research Group on Health and Law was proud to host Professor Lawrence Gostin (Georgetown U.), who delivered the 2nd Annual Lecture in Health and Law听on how developped countries need to ensure the basic survival needs of the world鈥檚 least healthy people, and听how developped countries need to ensure the basic survival needs of the world鈥檚 least healthy people.听This 2nd Annual Lecture in Health and Law was sponsored in part by the 平特五不中 Beatty Memorial Lecture Series.听
