As you may have already seen, the blawgs have been discussing this recent order by United States District Court Judge Eric Melgren. Judge Melgren issued the order granting a motion for a continuance of a trial scheduled for June 14, 2011, in Kansas, after the defendant, a Dallas attorney, sought the continuance on the grounds that his first-born son was due to be born on July 3, 2011. The judge expresses his dismay at the plaintiff’s attorneys’ decision to oppose the motion:
Eckstein Hall, our new home, was today named Project of the Year in The Business Journal’s 2011 Real Estate Awards program. The announcement was made at a luncheon program at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Milwaukee: although various awards were announced in advance, this top award was shrouded in secrecy until near the end of the program.
This is a gratifying recognition for the Law School and the broader University — indeed, all who were involved in the project, including the design architect, Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott, and the construction firm, Opus North Corp. Tom Ganey, University Architect, and I asked Kathy-Kugi Tom and Jerad Protaskey, project managers for the University and Opus North, respectively, to accept the award.
The panel of four judges deciding the awards included Bob Greenstreet, Dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and formerly city planner for Milwaukee.
It is an especially welcome honor for all associated with the Law School for a particular reason. The scales of a close competition (especially between Eckstein Hall and the new Columbia St. Mary’s hospital) were tipped by “the impact [Eckstein Hall] was having on the community,” according to Mark Kass, The Business Journal’s editor in introducing the awards.
April 16th is the 4th Annual National Health Care Decisions Day, a day when health-care practitioners reach out and express the importance of having discussions about personal values and treatment preferences, especially in the event of loss of function and end-of-life circumstances. I encourage every adult to complete an advance directive because any adult can fall down and go boom. (Remember: all of the seminal “withdrawal of care” cases involved young women: Karen Ann Quinlan, Nancy Cruzan, and Terri Schiavo were all under 35 when they suffered their respective traumas.) So here is my pondering for the occasion:
Recently I assisted in a case of a 15-year-old Jehovah’s Witness rushed into the emergency department “bleeding out.” Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) regard blood transfusions as a violation that has profound spiritual implications, and accordingly, refuse such transfusions even when such treatments can be life-saving. Supporting JWs in their refusal is an early-learned bioethics lesson as students explore issues of patient autonomy and respecting cultural values. Competent individuals have the right to refuse unwanted medical treatments, even when refusal will lead to death. But this was a 15-year-old.