scope:

The classic authority on public health law, this book serves as a common framework to facilitate communications and cooperation between health professionals and their legal advisors. Like the first two editions, this edition isaddressed primarily to health professionals in the broad and expanding field of public health- health professionals who are responsible for assuring conditions in which people can be healthy. Although public health law applies to both private organizations and individuals, its principal impact is on governmental agencies, particularly federal agencies and state and local health departments working to protect "population health." This book is invaluable for transforming the black letter of the law on the statute books into real life protection of the public's health. Substantial treatment is given to environmental health law. It also provides greatly enriched material on legal aspects of personal health services, including right of privacy, recent abortion and "right to die"cases, and an expanded discussion of law and policy governing HIV/AIDS. There is also an in depth analysis of the new HIPPA Privacy Rule providing the first national standards for certain individually identifiable health data. An important new chapter covers the need for Public International Concern-a sweeping review of examples of the principal international agencies, treaties, legal instruments and documents on international public health policies including SARS, bioterrorism, ozone depletion, and global warming.