You are here: Fairness.com > Resources > Prof. George J. Annas Esq.

Prof. George J. Annas Esq.


Self Description

November 2005: "George Annas is the Edward R. Utley Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights of Boston University School of Public Health, and Professor in the Boston University School of Medicine, and School of Law . He is the cofounder of Global Lawyers and Physicians, a transnational professional association of lawyers and physicians working together to promote human rights and health. He has degrees from Harvard College (A.B. economics, '67), Harvard Law School (J.D. '70) and Harvard School of Public Health (M.P.H. '72), where he was a Joseph P. Kennedy Fellow in Medical Ethics. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Justice John V. Spalding of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and came to Boston University in 1972 as the Director of the Center for Law and Health Sciences at the law school. At Boston University he has taught graduate courses at the School of Public Health , Medical School , and Law School that have included Health Law; Human Experimentation; American Bioethics; Health and Human Rights; Advanced Topics in Health Law; Law, Medicine & Literature; Genetics and the Law; Patient Rights; and Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights.

Professor Annas has been called “the father of patient rights,” the doyen of American medico-legal analysts,” and a “national treasure.” He is the author or editor of sixteen books on health law and bioethics, including American Bioethics: Crossing Human Rights and Health Law Boundaries (2005), The Rights of Patients (3d ed. 2004), Some Choice: Law, Medicine, and the Market (1999), Standard of Care: The Law of American Bioethics (l993), and Judging Medicine (1987). Nonetheless, his favorite (and least publicly appreciated) work is a play entitled Shelley's Brain, that has been presented to bioethics audiences across the and in , and is a dark comedy about the world’s first brain transfer experiment."

http://dccwww.bumc.bu.edu/sph/displayDetails.asp?INDEX=577

Third-Party Descriptions

June 2007: The proposed regulations say the CDC would comply with current federal privacy laws, but the new rules don't address a patient's rights to appeal their case, said Boston University health-law professor George Annas.

http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2007/06/quarantine_law

May 2007: 'This just seems like lazy investigators not wanting to try to get informed consent in situations where it is difficult to get it, so they say it is impossible,' said George J. Annas, a Boston University bioethicist. 'I don't think we should use people like this.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/26/AR2007052600982.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Boston University Organization Nov 13, 2005
Founder/Co-Founder of Global Lawyers and Physicians (GLP) Organization Nov 13, 2005
Student/Trainee (past or present) Harvard University Organization Nov 13, 2005

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Sep 26, 2009 Mandatory Flu Shots Hit Resistance: Many Health-Care Workers Required to Get Vaccines

QUOTE: With the H1N1 pandemic spreading rapidly, hundreds of thousands of doctors, nurses, orderlies and other U.S. health-care workers for the first time are being required to get flu shots, drawing praise from many public-health authorities but condemnation from some employees, unions and other critics who object to mandatory vaccination.

 Washington Post
Jun 01, 2007 Century-Old Quarantine Law Puts Patient Rights at Risk

QUOTE: The first federal quarantine case in the United States in 44 years has galvanized debate over efforts to reform the nation's century-old quarantine law, crafted before the civil rights movement, modern privacy and bio-terrorism concerns.

 Wired
May 27, 2007 Critical Care Without Consent: Ethicists Disagree On Experimenting During Crises

QUOTE: The federal government is undertaking the most ambitious set of studies ever mounted under a controversial arrangement that allows researchers to conduct some kinds of medical experiments without first getting patients' permission.

 Washington Post
Oct 10, 2006 The Last Word on the Last Breath

QUOTE: the question of who has final say over whether CPR should be attempted on a gravely ill patient — the doctor, the patient or the patient’s representative — is live and unsettled in law and medicine. Many doctors believe that their medical judgment about whether CPR will be effective in a given patient’s case, and their knowledge of the havoc it can wreak on a dying body, should prevail. But a patient’s representative, who is often a relative, may believe that every medical option should be exercised and that a miracle could be just a chest compression away.

 New York Times
Nov 13, 2005 Found on the Web, With DNA: a Boy's Father

QUOTE: "No one knew you could get a DNA test and find your donor." While welcomed by advocates of children trying to locate anonymous donors, the case -- apparently the first of its kind -- has raised alarm among sperm banks and some medical ethicists. They are concerned it might start a trend that could violate the privacy of thousands of sperm donors and discourage future ones.

 Washington Post
Mar 27, 2003 Baby case tests rights of parents

QUOTE: "She was not born handicapped. She was handicapped as a result of the treatment alternatives that were prescribed over our express objections..."

 Christian Science Monitor
Sep 08, 2001 Lasik Surgery Sales Tactics Raise Eyebrows: 'Patient Counselors' Earn Bonuses for Each Customer

QUOTE: One of the largest national chains of laser eye surgery clinics pays sales commissions to at least some of its "patient counselors," who seek to collect nonrefundable deposits from customers before they have been briefed on all possible risks...

 Washington Post