Maxwell J. Mehlman is Distinguished University Professor, Arthur E. Petersilge Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Law-Medicine Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and Professor of Biomedical Ethics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He received his JD from Yale Law School in 1975, and holds two bachelors degrees, one from Reed College and one from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.
Prior to joining the Case Western Reserve faculty in 1984, Professor Mehlman practiced law with Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in federal regulation of health care and medical technology.
Professor Mehlman is the co-author of Access to the Genome: The Challenge to Equality; co-editor, with Tom Murray, of the Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology; co-author of Genetics: Ethics, Law and Policy, the first casebook on genetics and law, now in its fifth edition; and author of Wondergenes: Genetic Enhancement and the Future of Society, published in 2003 by the Indiana University Press; The Price of Perfection: Individualism and Society in the Era of Biomedical Enhancement, published in 2009 by the Johns Hopkins University Press; and Transhumanist Dreams and Dystopian Nightmares: The Promise and Peril of Genetic Engineering, published in 2012 by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
Research Information
Research Interests
- Patient-Physician relationship
- Rights of patients
- Genetics, ethics, and law
- Biomedical enhancement
- Quality assurance & malpractice
- Rationing
- Health reform
- Military bioethics
Publications
Books:
Mehlman, J. Transhumanist Dreams and Dystopian Nightmares: The Promise and Peril of Genetic Engineering. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. ISBN: 978-1421406695
Genetics: Ethics, Law and Society (with Andrews and Rothstein)(Thompson/West, third edition 2010). ISBN: 978-0314911865
The Price of Perfection: Individualism and Society in the Era of Biomedical Enhancement (Johns Hopkins University Press 2009). ISBN: 978-0801892639
Articles:
“Medical practice guidelines as malpractice safe harbors: illusion or deceit?” J Law Med Ethics. 2012 Summer;40(2):286-300. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-720X.2012.00664.x.
Mehlman MJ, Berg JW, Juengst ET, Kodish E. Ethical and legal issues in enhancement research on human subjects. Camb Q Healthc Ethics. 2011 Jan;20(1):30-45. doi: 10.1017/S0963180110000605.
“Modern Eugenics and the Law" in A Century of Eugenics in America. (Paul Lombardo ed., 2011) 219-240. Indiana Univ. Press. ISBN: 978-0-253-22269-5