The annual Lee E. Teitelbaum Utah Law Review Symposium, The Criminalization of Care: Health and the Home, will be held at Utah Law on Friday, November 3: The event will examine the legal issues that arise when doctors and other institutional actors are asked to serve the interests of law enforcement, bringing together scholars in healthcare law and policy, medical ethics, trans rights, and feminist legal theory.
“We are so excited to welcome the very top scholars and advocates in their fields to address these complex questions,” says Teneille Brown, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Director of the Center for Law and Biomedical Sciences. “Questions like ‘Why is the state using physicians as a regulatory lever to police pregnant and trans bodies?’ and ‘What are some of the unintended, negative consequences that flow from over-involvement of law enforcement in parenting decisions?’ and ‘What are the tradeoffs when we prioritize law and order and punishment over treatment and prevention?’”
Three of Utah Law’s faculty members—Teneille Brown, Leslie Francis, and Laura Kessler—identified topics and panels to be presented at the symposium, which include:
- Health Privacy and Criminalization of Health Care
- Carceral Logics in Civil Institutions and Legal Systems
- Mental Health and Ethics of Policing
- The Criminalization of Trans Lives and Health Care
Sarah Duensing, Executive Symposium Editor for the Utah Law Review, says, “We were inspired to choose this theme because it is incredibly timely. In the wake of Dobbs and an increase in anti-trans legislation, we wanted to examine these legal and ethical issues.”
Duensing will also participate as a panelist at the symposium and present research that she has been working on with Teneille Brown as part of her Utah Center of Excellence in ELSE Research (UCEER) fellowship.
“I’m definitely nervous, but also excited for the opportunity to showcase our research and discuss medical privacy alongside two health privacy experts,” she says.
Duensing is not the only one looking forward to the symposium.
“It’s such a lovely reminder of how much intellectual firepower we have here internally at SJQ, and how much passion we have about collecting smart humans together to focus on pressing legal issues,” says Brown. “This is the very best of academia—leveraging our strengths to convene a powerhouse of scholars together.”