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Foreword: Envisioning Health Disparities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2021

Scott Burris
Scott Burris*
Affiliation:
Temple University Beasley School of Law, Center for Law and the Public’s Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins University, Regulatory Institutions Network, Research School of the Social Sciences, Australian National University
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American Journal of Law & Medicine , Volume 29 , Issue 2-3 , June 2003 , pp. 151 - 158
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Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics and Boston University 2003

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References

1 See, e.g., SOCIAL EPIDEMIOLOGY (L. Berkman & I. Kawachi eds., 2000); WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE HEALTHY AND OTHERS NOT? (Evans et al. eds., 1994).

2 See generally Burris, Scott, Introduction: Merging Law, Human Rights, and Social Epidemiology, 30 J.L. MED. & ETHICS 498 (2002)Google Scholar.

3 Law may contribute to racial and other health disparities in at least two important ways: law may be a mechanism through which deep social structures are operationalized in health disparities, and law may be contributing to the existence of those deep social determinants. See Burris, Scott et al., Integrating Law and Social Epidemiology, 30 J.L. MED. & ETHICS 510 (2002)Google Scholar.

4 “Structural interventions … refer to interventions that work by altering the context within which health is produced or reproduced.” Blankenship, Kim M. et al., Structural Interventions in Public Health, 14 Supp. 1 AIDS S11 (2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Sumartojo, Esther, Structural Factors in HIV Prevention: Concepts, Examples, and Implications for Research, 14 Supp. 1 AIDS S3 (2000)Google Scholar.

5 Herek, Gregory M., Thinking About AIDS and Stigma: A Psychologist's Perspective, 30 J.L. MED. & ETHICS 594 (2002)Google Scholar. For a review of other definitions current in the literature, see Link, Bruce & Phelan, Jo, Conceptualizing Stigma, 27 ANN. REV. SOCIOLOGY 363, 364-65 (2001)Google Scholar.

6 See Noah, Barbara A., The Participation of Underrepresented Minorities in Clinical Research, 29 AM. J.L. & MED. 221 (2003)Google Scholar.

7 For a discussion of the distinction between race and racism, see Krieger, Nancy, Does Racism Harm Health? Did Child Abuse Exist before 1962? On Explicit Questions, Critical Science, and Current Controversies: An Ecosocial Perspective, 93 AM. J. PUB HEALTH 194 (2003)Google Scholar.

8 See Ross, Lainie Friedman & Walsh, Catherine, Minority Children in Pediatric Research, 29 AM. J.L. & MED. 319 (2003)Google Scholar.

9 ERVING GOFFMAN, STIGMA: NOTES ON THE MANAGEMENT OF SPOILED IDENTITY (1963); Link & Phelan, supra note 5.

10 See, e.g., Krieger, Linda Hamilton, The Content of Our Categories: A Cognitive Bias Approach to Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunity, 47 STAN. L. REV. 1161 (1995)Google Scholar. It is quite possible to do things differently. In Canada, to take one close example, the Employment Equity Act requires employers to engage in a self-audit process to identify systemic barriers to equality in the workplace. See Canadian Human Rights Comm’n, Framework for Compliance Audits Under the Employment Equity Act: Audit Process and Assessment Factors, available at http://www.chrcccdp.ca/ee/audit-framework.asp (1996).

11 Burris, Scott, Disease Stigma in U.S. Public Health Law, 30 J.L. MED. & ETHICS 179 (2002)Google Scholar.

12 Balsa, Ana I. et al., Clinical Uncertainty and Healthcare Disparities, 29 AM. J.L & MED. 203 (2003)Google Scholar.

13 See Noah, supra note 6; Ross & Walsh, supra note 8.

14 Teitelbaum, Joel & Rosenbaum, Sara, Medical Care as a Public Accommodation: Moving the Discussion to Race, 29 AM. J.L & MED. 381, 382-83 (2003)Google Scholar.

15 KIMBERLE CRENSHAW, CRITICAL RACE THEORY: THE KEY WRITINGS THAT FORMED THE MOVEMENT (1995).

16 See, e.g., GRAHAM SCAMBLER, EPILEPSY (1989).

17 See Balsa et al., supra note 12, at 204.

18 See, e.g., Wallace, Steven P. & Villa, Valentine, Equitable Health Systems: Cultural and Structural Issues for Latino Elders, 29 AM. J.L. & MED. 247, 256 (2003)Google Scholar.

19 See Teitelbaum & Rosenbaum, supra note 14.

20 Link, B. G. & Phelan, Jo, Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Disease, J. HEALTH & SOCIAL BEHAVIOR 80 (Extra Issue 1995)Google Scholar.

21 Bobinski, Mary Anne, Health Disparities and the Law: Wrongs in Search of a Right, 29 AM. J.L. & MED. 363 (2003)Google Scholar.

22 Rose, Geoffrey, Sick Individuals and Sick Populations, 14 INT’L J. EPIDEMIOLOGY 32 (1985)Google Scholar.

23 Id.; see, e.g., Susser, M. & Susser, E., Choosing a Future for Epidemiology: I. Eras and Paradigms, 86 AM. J. PUB. HEALTH 668 (1996)Google Scholar; Susser, M. & Susser, E., Choosing a Future for Epidemiology: II, From Black Box to Chinese Boxes and Eco-Epidemiology, 86 AM. J. PUB. HEALTH 674 (1996)Google Scholar; Kawachi, I., Income Inequality and Health, in SOCIAL EPIDEMIOLOGY 76 (Kawachi, I. & Berkman, L. eds., 2000)Google Scholar.

24 See INST. OF MED., THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC HEALTH (1988).

25 See Burris et al., supra note 3, at 515-18.

26 See, e.g., Wallace, Steven P. et al., The Consequences of Color-Blind Health Policy for Older Racial and Ethnic Minorities, 9 Stanford L. & Pol’y Rev. 329 (1998)Google Scholar.

27 Balsa et al., supra note 12.

28 Trubek, Louise G. & Das, Maya, Achieving Equality: Healthcare Governance in Transition, 29 AM. J.L. & MED. 395 (2003)Google Scholar.

29 See, e.g., Aral, Sevgi et al., Health and the Governance of Security: A Tale of Two Systems, 30 J.L. MED. & ETHICS 632 (2002)Google Scholar. See generally LES JOHNSTON & CLIFFORD SHEARING, GOVERNING SECURITY: EXPLORATIONS IN POLICING AND JUSTICE (2003) (elaborating on the concept of governance and its influence on behavior).

30 See Davoli, Joanmarie Ilaria, No Room at the Inn: How the Federal Medicaid Program Created Inequalities in Psychiatric Hospital Access for the Indigent Mentally Ill, 29 AM. J.L. & MED. 159 (2003)Google Scholar.

31 Jacobi, John V., Parity and Difference: The Value of Parity Legislation for the Seriously Mentally Ill, 29 AM. J.L. & MED. 185 (2003)Google Scholar.

32 Wallace & Villa, supra note 18.

33 Teitelbaum & Rosenbaum, supra note 14.

34 See, e.g., Moss, Kathryn et al., Unfunded Mandate: An Empirical Study of the Implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 50 U. KAN. L. REV. 1 (2001)Google Scholar (examining enforcement of Title I of the ADA). Trubek and Das discuss the history of civil rights enforcement in healthcare access. Trubek & Das, supra note 28, at 397-99.

35 Compare GERALD N. ROSENBERG, THE HOLLOW HOPE: CAN COURTS BRING ABOUT SOCIAL CHANGE? (1991) with MICHAEL W. MCCANN, RIGHTS AT WORK: PAY EQUITY REFORM AND THE POLITICS OF LEGAL MOBILIZATION (1994).

36 See, e.g., Yamin, Alicia Ely, Protecting and Promoting the Right to Health in Latin America: Selected Experiences from the Field, 5 HEALTH & HUM. RTS. 117 (2000)Google Scholar. See generally LAWRENCE GOSTIN & ZITA LAZZARINI, HUMAN RIGHTS AND PUBLIC HEALTH IN THE AIDS PANDEMIC (1997) (explaining that defending human rights is critical in the fight against the AIDS pandemic).

37 See, e.g., Brophy, Alfred, The World of Reparations: Slavery, Reparations in Historical Perspective, 3 J. L. IN SOCIETY 105 (2002)Google Scholar.

38 See generally RESTORATIVE JUSTICE AND CIVIL SOCIETY (H. Strang & J. Braithwaite eds., 2001).

39 The metaphor of disparity is also used in this issue by Merrick, Janna C., Spiritual Healing, Sick Kids and the Law: Inequities in the American Healthcare System, 29 AM. J.L. & MED. 269 (2003)Google Scholar, who argues that spiritual exemptions from vaccine and treatment laws should be seen as discriminating against children denied standard care because of the beliefs of their parents, and by Wilson, Robin Fretwell, Uncovering the Rationale for Requiring Infertility in Surrogacy Arrangements, 29 AM. J.L. & MED. 337 (2003)Google Scholar, who considers whether laws limiting surrogacy to infertile couples discriminate rationally or unfairly.

37 See, e.g., Burris, Scott, The Invisibility of Public Health: Population-Level Measures in a Politics of Market Individualism, 87 AM. J. PUB. HEALTH 1607 (1997)Google Scholar.