New NEJM Article Explores History of Health Law Over Past 200 Years.

In an expansive review of two centuries of health law, Professor George Annas observes that legal procedures and courtrooms have experienced few changes over that span but health law has transformed nearly as much as the practice of medicine itself.

George AnnasIn the article, published Aug. 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine, Annas chronicles the historical linkage of law and medicine from the early applications of malpractice law in the 1760s to the current involvement of law in domestic health-care policy and international human rights.

Annas, a professor and chair of health law, bioethics and human rights, also touches on the often contentious relationship between the two professions, noting, “Physicians and lawyers did not necessarily get along better in 1812 than they do today, primarily because of medical malpractice litigation. Herman Melville’s 1851 metaphoric Massachusetts masterpiece, Moby-Dick, symbolizes the view of many physicians, then and now, that medical malpractice litigation is the white whale: evil, ubiquitous, and seemingly immortal.” 

The full article — “Doctors, Patients, and Lawyers — Two Centuries of Health Law” — is part of the NEJM’s special series of articles by preeminent authours to mark the journal’s 200th anniversary