The Impact of Law on Coronary Heart Disease: Some Preliminary Observations on the Relationship of Law to “Normalized” Conditions

Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 30 (4):608-620 (2002)
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Abstract

The relationship between law and a population’s health is complex and poorly understood. To the extent that scholarship exists on the subject, it has usually focused on epidemics that are concentrated in relatively vulnerable, marginalized communities. Often, individual behaviors are assumed to play a major role in the epidemiology of these diseases. Perhaps, as a result, these illnesses become stigmatized and the object of coercive laws, which in turn become the subject of litigation, legal debate, and ultimately scholarly analysis. Thus, to the extent that U.S. legal scholars have thought about public health in the last 30 years, they have generally done so in the context of tuberculosis, intravenous drug abuse, and a handful of similar conditions. Likewise, Jonathan Mann’s own appreciation of the importance of human rights to public health emerged in the wake of his work with HIV, which is perhaps the prototypical stigmatized disease.

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Citations of this work

The Evolving Field of Health and Human Rights: Issues and Methods.Stephen P. Marks - 2002 - Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 30 (4):739-754.
The Evolving Field of Health and Human Rights: Issues and Methods.Stephen P. Marks - 2002 - Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 30 (4):739-754.

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References found in this work

Integrating Law and Social Epidemiology.Scott Burns, Ichiro Kawachi & Austin Sarat - 2002 - Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 30 (4):510-521.
Integrating Law and Social Epidemiology.Scott Burris, Ichiro Kawachi & Austin Sarat - 2002 - Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 30 (4):510-521.

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