Law
California’s Proposition 36: Changing the Drug Policy Landscape
Twelve years ago, California voters participated in a referendum on drug treatment policy. Laws in place at the time had required minimum prison sentences for many non-violent crimes such as drug abuse, resulting in a growing and aging population of non-violent prisoners. The initiative, known as Proposition 36, had two goals: to increase public safety [...]
Your Genes Belong to Us: Gene Patenting and its Discontents
By Gengshi Chen Genae Girard, a 39-year-old woman living in the US, had to pay a staggering $3200 for a single genetic test for the BRCA gene associated with breast and ovarian cancer, only to find that she was unable to request a second opinion upon receiving the positive test result. After consulting with doctors, [...]
Bombay/Mumbai: Formalizing the Informal?
Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich’s account of a hot night in Delhi embodies a sense of oppression felt only in Indian cities: “People eating, people washing, people arguing and screaming. People thrusting their hands through the taxi window. People defecating and urinating. People clinging to buses. People herding animals. People. People. People.”[1] Bombay faces a variety [...]
Stem Cell Research: Effects of the Patenting Landscape
Ever since stem cell research began in the late 1900’s, the field has been fraught with a variety of issues including bioethics, funding, and general skepticism. The debate on stem cells has been unrelenting, and policies on the field are usually contentious topics during political campaigns. Apart from bone marrow transplantation [1], all other potential [...]
Law and Technology: The Changing Face of War and its Legal Ramifications
Over the last ten years, leaps in technology have led to warfare being augmented by developments that would seem to be more suited to science fiction. However, the use of drone warfare, cyberwarfare, and data mining has caused a dramatic shift in the way a war is thought of and conducted, in addition to raising [...]
Connect With Us
