Happy Monday, everyone. I don’t usually redirect you to another writer, but today, I will. First of all, he’s an actual expert. According to his website bio page,
“Professor Jonathan Turley is a nationally recognized legal scholar who has written extensively in areas ranging from constitutional law to legal theory to tort law. He has written over three dozen academic articles that have appeared in a variety of leading law journals at Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Northwestern, University of Chicago, and other schools.”
Turley’s expertise doesn’t get him a pass. We still have a requirement to think things through. After all, as his article will show you, other experts disagree.
I present his article to you because it overlaps several things we’ve been thinking about.
In the past, we’ve looked at how rights are viewed differently in Canada and the US. Turley looks at how tort law is different in the US and UK.
According to the Canadian Encyclopedia,
“The word tort comes from the Latin tortum, meaning “wrong, injustice.” The purpose of tort law is not to punish wrongdoers; it is to provide damages to victims as compensation for their losses. It affects nearly every walk of life, from manufacturers and property owners to pet owners, drivers, doctors and bartenders, all of whom have a duty of care.”
We’ve also considered Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). Turley’s article is about a British woman fighting for medical treatment that she hopes will improve her life.
We’ve also thought about the various ways in which language is being perverted. This is not the point of his article, but it shows up. Turley mentions something called a transparency order. These are issued when the court doesn’t want someone’s identity used in the media. It becomes evident after a moment’s thought that transparency is the opposite of what’s being sought. The hospital treating the patient, ST, also claims that ST’s parents can’t use the hospital's name. Unfortunately, the British court agreed, and now ST’s parents are finding it difficult to fundraise support for their efforts.
After you read his article, please come back here and share some comments. I’m interested in how you think about the direction of medicine and law in our world.