Commentary: Organ Retrieval from Anencephalic Infants: Understanding the AMA's Recommendations

American Medical Association, Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, “The Use of Anencephalic Neonates as Organ Donors,” JAMA, 273 (1995): 1614–18.

Orentlicher D. , “The Influence of a Professional Organization on Physician Behavior,” Albany Law Review, 57 (1995): 583–605.

AMA, supra note 1, at 1617.

Id. at 1617–18.

Id. at 1614.

Kolata G. , “Donating Organs of Anencephalic Babies Is Backed,” New York Times, May 24, 1995, at C13.

Weisman C.S. , “Practice Changes in Response to the Malpractice Litigation Climate,” Medical Care, 27 (1989): 16–24.

Orentlicher D. , “The Limitations of Legislation,” Maryland Law Review, 53 (1994): Esp. at 1280–301; Orentlicher D. , “The Illusion of Patient Choice in End-of-Life Decisions,” JAMA, 267 (1992): 2101–04; and Asch D.A. Hansen-Flaschen J. Lanken P.N. , “Decisions to Limit or Continue Life-Sustaining Treatment by Critical Care Physicians in the United States: Conflicts Between Physicians' Practices and Patients' Wishes,” American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 151 (1995): 288–92.

Goldman G.M. Stratton K.M. Brown M.D. , “What Actually Happened: An Informed Review of the Linares Incident,” Law, Medicine & Health Care, 17 (1989): 298–307.

Indeed, in a recent study that looked at actual practices of physicians rather than reporting of practices by physicians, researchers did not find evidence for a link between tort liability and “defensive medicine.” This study found no increase in the use of prenatal resources or cesarean deliveries for low-risk patients by obstetricians who had a history of being sued for malpractice or who practiced in a county with a relatively high rate of malpractice suits being filed by patients. Baldwin L.-M. , “Defensive Medicine and Obstetrics,” JAMA, 274 (1995): 1606–10.

Hutchinson A.C. Monahan P.J. , “Law, Politics, and the Critical Legal Scholars: The Unfolding Drama of American Legal Thought,” Stanford Law Review, 36 (1984): At 206.

Orentlicher (1994), supra note 10, at 1304–05; Orentlicher (1992), supra note 10, at 2104; and Veatch R.M. , “Abandoning Informed Consent,” Hastings Center Report, 25, no. 2 (1995): 5–12.