Pregnancy and Covid vaccine trials: Gender justice compromised.

On June 11, 2021, a pregnant woman approached the Delhi High Court seeking vaccination for pregnant women on a priority basis. The petitioner also sought directions to the Union government for setting up of separate vaccination centres for pregnant women who are at high risk, and the creation of a registry for monitoring their medical condition post vaccination (1). The case was a pivotal point in the history of Covid-19 vaccine rollouts in India, because it demanded a clear communication from the Union Government for vaccination of pregnant women. The Union Government's counsel informed the Court that while the Government would consider the May 28 recommendations of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) in favour of vaccinations for all pregnant women based on a risk vs benefit assessment, no timeline was in place for this yet (2). Based on this statement, the Court disposed of the petition, passing no further orders.

Understanding the nature and dimensions of litigation crowdfunding: A visual analytics approach.

The escalating cost of civil litigation is leaving many defendants and plaintiffs unable to meet legal expenses such as attorney fees, court charges and others. This significantly impacts their ability to sue or defend themselves effectively. Related to this phenomenon is the ethics discussion around access to justice and crowdfunding. This article explores the dimensions that explain the phenomenon of litigation crowdfunding. Using data from CrowdJustice, a popular Internet fundraising platform used to assist in turning legal cases into publicly funded social cases, we study litigation crowdfunding through the lenses of the number of pledges, goal achievement, target amount, length of description, country, case category, and others. Overall, we see a higher number of cases seeking funding in the categories of human rights, environment, and judicial review. Meanwhile, the platform offers access to funding for other less prominent categories, such as voting rights, personal injury, intellectual property, and data & privacy. At the same time, donors are willing to donate more to cases related to health, politics, and public services. Also noteworthy is that while donors are willing to donate to education, animal welfare, data & privacy, and inquest-related cases, they are not willing to donate large sums to these causes. In terms of lawyer/law firm status, donors are more willing to donate to cases assisted by experienced lawyers. Furthermore, we also note that the higher the number of successful cases an attorney presents, the greater the amount raised. We analyzed valence, arousal, and dominance in case description and found they have a positive relationship with funds raised. Also, when a case description is updated on a crowdsourcing site, it ends up being more successful in funding-at least in the categories of health, immigration, and judicial review. This is not the case, however, for categories such as public service, human rights, and environment. Our research addresses whether litigation crowdfunding, in particular, levels the playing field in terms of opening up financing opportunities for those individuals who cannot afford the costs of litigation. While it may support social justice, ethical concerns with regards to the kinds of campaigns must also be addressed. Most of the ethical concerns center around issues relating to both the fundraisers and donors. Our findings have ethical and social justice implications for crowdfunding platform design.

[Assessment of Asbestos-related Occupational Diseases: Socio-medical and Legal Aspects]. / Sozialmedizinische und sozialjuristische Aspekte in der Zusammenhangsbegutachtung asbestbedingter Berufskrankheiten.

Occupational diseases are certain diseases designated as such by law. Whereas the medical conditions are described in guidelines, their recognition is based on judicial administrative procedures. Establishing causality is based on requirements of social law. The basic socio-legal concepts are mentioned and the principles of causality in asbestos-related occupational diseases are listed. Exemplary social court judgments are cited. Judgements may not infrequently differ from the medical point of view. The aim of this article is to describe the correct use of social medical understanding in order to carry out adequate assessment of occupational diseases, which implements the legal requirements.

Disability Rights as a Necessary Framework for Crisis Standards of Care and the Future of Health Care.

In this essay, we suggest practical ways to shift the framing of crisis standards of care toward disability justice. We elaborate on the vision statement provided in the 2010 Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Medicine) "Summary of Guidance for Establishing Crisis Standards of Care for Use in Disaster Situations," which emphasizes fairness; equitable processes; community and provider engagement, education, and communication; and the rule of law. We argue that interpreting these elements through disability justice entails a commitment to both distributive and recognitive justice. The disability rights movement's demand "Nothing about us, without us" requires substantive inclusion of disabled people in decision-making related to their interests, including in crisis planning before, during, and after a pandemic like Covid-19.

Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Restorative Justice in Brazil.

The Brazilian prison population in 2016 had increased by more than 700%, compared with the situation in the early 1990s, from 90 thousand to 726.7 thousand. The ordinary response to prison overcrowding came through changes to the justice system, such as Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Restorative Justice. Although these new processes are socially relevant, there are few studies about them anywhere, but especially in Brazil. This study seeks to discuss the perceptions of Brazilian judges upon these new ways of dispensing justice from the perspective of institutional change theory. The data collection involved document analysis, court-hearing observations, and interviews with 14 key-actors in the Brazilian justice system. The results show four dimensions-beliefs, motivations, commitment, and intergroup relations-that characterize the roles played by Brazilian judges working with Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Restorative Justice. This movement can be classified as the modal type of institutional change called layering and "radical" frame blending.

O acesso a medicamentos em sistemas universais de saúde - perspectivas e desafios / Access to medication in universal health systems - perspectives and challenges

RESUMO Este estudo objetivou analisar os desafios do acesso a medicamentos em quatro sistemas universais de saúde da Austrália, do Brasil, do Canadá e do Reino Unido. Estudo qualitativo crítico-reflexivo por meio de revisão integrativa da literatura. Um dos grandes desafios dos sistemas estudados é o da incorporação de medicamentos de alto custo, via análises de custo-efetividade para cumprir a difícil tarefa de conciliar a justiça social e a equidade no acesso com sustentabilidade econômica. Particularmente o Canadá, mesmo sendo um país desenvolvido, ainda vive o dilema de como financiar um sistema de saúde no qual o acesso a medicamentos também seja universal. O Brasil convive com duas realidades problemáticas: primeiro, dar acesso a medicamentos, já padronizados pelo Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), diante de um financiamento diminuto, segundo, de maneira semelhante aos sistemas australiano, canadense e inglês, vive o dilema de como incorporar novos medicamentos eficazes e com viabilidade econômica, além da questão da judicialização da saúde, um fenômeno complexo resultante da fragilidade pública na organização, financiamento, consolidação do SUS.

ABSTRACT This study aimed to analyze the challenges of access to medicines in four universal health systems in Australia, Brazil, Canada and the United Kingdom. Critical-reflexive qualitative study through Integrative Literature Review. The great challenge of the systems studied is the incorporation of high-cost drugs, through cost-effectiveness analyses to fulfill the difficult task of reconciling social justice and access equity with economic sustainability. Canada, in particular, despite being a developed country, still deals with the dilemma of how to finance a health system in which access to medicines is also universal. Brazil deals with two problematic realities: first, to grant access to medicines that are already standardized by the Unified Health System (SUS), in the face of insufficient funding. Secondly, similarly to the Australian, Canadian, and English systems, the dilemma of how to incorporate new efficient medicines considering its economic feasibility, as well as the issue of health judicialization, a complex phenomenon resulting from public fragility in the organization, financing, and consolidation of the SUS.

Implementing social justice in the transition from illicit to legal cannabis.

Background: The legalization of cannabis for adult use is being increasingly embraced in several countries and local entities. A driving force for these changes has been the individual, family, community, societal, and economic costs of cannabis prohibition, which have fallen most heavily upon disadvantaged minority populations.Objectives: In this review, we explore whether the legalization of cannabis has begun to correct the injustices of cannabis prohibition. Progress is assessed in five areas of social justice related to cannabis prohibition: expungement of previous arrests and convictions for cannabis-related crimes that are no longer illegal; consequences of cannabis-related offenses in a cannabis-legal environment; diversity of the cannabis-legal industry; funding of equity and/or restorative justice programs for those communities most affected by cannabis prohibition; and risks of cannabis legalization negatively impacting the populations that most suffered under the legacy of cannabis prohibition.Methods: Iterative and focused review.Results: There has been some progress in expunging previous cannabis-related convictions, particularly misdemeanors, and decreasing cannabis-related arrests. Encouraging diversity in the cannabis industry and the funding of equity programs has been very limited. There is no evidence to-date that populations that have suffered most as a result of cannabis prohibition are at increased risk from its legalization.Conclusions: Focused regulatory efforts and financial resources (from both cannabis revenue and savings from the abolition of cannabis prohibition) as well as more attentive data collection and analysis should be utilized to assure that all individuals experience the benefits, and avoid the consequences, of cannabis legalization.

Public Health Law and Policy Implications: Justice Kavanaugh.

Following the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in one of the most sensational jurisprudence events of the modern era, we examine potential repercussions across multiple themes in public health, law, and policy stemming from his ideology and the confirmation process.

Research Ethics and Justice: The Case of Finland.

This paper explores how Finnish research ethics deals with matters of justice on the levels of practical regulation, political morality, and theoretical studies. The bioethical sets of principles introduced by Tom Beauchamp and James Childress in the United States and Jacob Dahl Rendtorff and Peter Kemp in Europe provide the conceptual background, together with a recently introduced conceptual map of theories of justice and their dimensions. The most striking finding is that the internationally recognized requirement of informed consent for research on humans can be ideologically tricky in a Scandinavian welfare state setting.