“I think there’s a good mix of perspectives in the book,” says Professor
John Culhane of
Reconsidering Law and Policy Debates: A Public Health Perspective, a new volume recently released by Cambridge University Press that he edited. “I’m pretty pleased with how it all unfolded.”
The genesis of the book came when Professor Culhane was discussing public health arguments for supporting marriage equality with a colleague. The discussion led to an examination of other social issues - including reproductive rights, contraception, and abortion – from a public health perspective. “From there, the book started to take shape,” says Professor Culhane. A 2007 Symposium on bringing a public heath perspective to bear on charged legal issues sponsored by Widener Law’s
Health Law Institute gave Professor Culhane a chance to convince the symposium’s expert participants to commit to contributing to the book.
When Widener Law Dean
Linda L. Ammons spoke to a representative from Cambridge University Press, she mentioned the potential book, and after Professor Culhane sent them an introduction he had written, they decided that they wanted to publish it. Professor Culhane wrote the introduction as well as a chapter on marriage equality for same-sex couples entitled “Public Health and Marriage (Equality),” while Widener Law Distinguished Professor
Jean Eggen contributed a chapter entitled “Punitive Damages and the Public Health Agenda.”
Other contributors to the book are Wendy E. Parmet, Diane E. Hoffmann, Vernellia Randall, Evan Stark, Jon S. Vernick, Daniel W. Webster, Katherine Vittes, and Elizabeth Weeks Leonard.
Reconsidering Law and Policy Debates: A Public Health Perspective can be ordered from the
Cambridge University Press website.