I write this ‘Letter from the Editor’ under unusual circumstances, yet those circumstances are similar to the ones all of us face. For one, I am writing this letter for the first time in eighteen years from my home office instead of ASLME's headquarters in Boston. For another, I write with deep uncertainty about the future. The COVID-19 virus has thrown our small operation into undiscovered country; we cancelled our flagship ‘Health Law Professors’ conference scheduled for June 2020 and will likely postpone or cancel more events in the future. We long to see our friends and colleagues again soon, even as we know we cannot. We miss the daily interaction with our co-workers.
However, in the face of this pandemic, we vow to keep a semblance of normalcy for ourselves and our members, and the best way to do that is to keep producing the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. Our last issue was the first printed during the pandemic; this issue you hold in your hands is the first entirely produced and published during the stay-at-home orders after COVID-19 had arrived. As you will see, our columnists (who often have more flexibility in responding to real-time events) were the first to interrogate questions around the crisis. ‘Currents in Contemporary Ethics’ editor Mark Rothstein has given us an examination of the crisis in light of traditional American values, while our ‘Global Health Law’ editors, Larry Gostin and Benjamin Mason Meier, ask “Has Global Health Law Risen to Meet the COVID-19 Challenge?” In both columns, it is clear the final story has not yet been written, but our journal will be among those that continue to ask questions.
Over the next year, we fully intend for our journal to keep publishing timely material, exploring the massive challenges posed by COVID-19, while also never losing sight of the many other vital topics we explore on a quarterly basis. The next year promises to be a trying time, certainly for everyone and perhaps for academics in particular as budgets are cut and scholars are forced to do more with less. We thank you, as always, for being a member of ASLME and for reading the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. None of this is possible without you, and we will strive every day to earn your trust even during this time of terrible calamity
