The National Health Lawyers Association (NHLA) is a national nonpartisan and nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of attorneys who are involved with or practicing in the health care field. The NHLA, a legal society as defined by the American Bar Association, was conceived seven years ago by two attorneys, David J. Greenburg, its present Executive Director, and James F. Doherty, general counsel of the Group Health Association of America. The Association's 15-member Board of Directors is drawn from many areas of the health care field. It includes counsel to HEW, congressional committees on health, provider trade associations, consumer groups, HMOs, insurance groups, hospitals, and nursing homes, and attorneys in private practice. The current President of the Association is Charles E. Westcott of Boston, Massachusetts.

Park v. Chessin, a recent New York case, marked the first step toward judicial acceptance of the theory of “wrongful life.” Wrongful life suits involve a cause of action brought by an infant, against a physician, alleging that the physician's failure to inform the child's parents of the possibility of their bearing a severely defective child was the proximate cause of the infant's birth, and thus resulted in harm to the infant. This Note explores recent legal developments that give precedential support to the development of the theory of wrongful life. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the awarding of monetary damages is an appropriate remedy for the wrongful life plaintiff, and it examines possible methods for measuring those damages. The Note concludes with an analysis of the capability of courts to adjudicate wrongful life suits, and of the possible ramifications of judicial acceptance of the theory of wrongful life.

The National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974 requires each state to enact a certificate-of-need program in compliance with federal standards in order to remain eligible for continued receipt of federal funds for health resource development after 1980. This Note contends that the Act and related HEW regulations preclude states from exempting health care facilities’ research expenditures and education expenditures from the scope of the states’ certificate-of-need programs. The Note recommends that, as an alternative to such state exemptions, each state develop a streamlined certificate-of-need procedure that fulfills federal requirements while efficiently meeting the special needs of research and education projects.

The birth of the world's first “test-tube baby,” a child conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF), raises serious medical, ethical, and legal problems. This Note explores the present controversy over the use of IVF and advocates federal regulation of the technique. Furthermore, this Note argues that, in order to deter unduly hazardous use of IVF and to compensate its victims, an experimenter should be subject to civil liability for either negligent, or willful and nonconsensual, destruction of an IVF conceptus, and held strictly liable when an IVF child is born with severe defects that are attributable to the use of the technique.