Oliver Wendell Holmes: The Professor and Autocrat Addresses Medical Matters

Bonbrest v. Kotz [Brief] (1946)

This influential opinion was copied throughout the United States allowing civil actions and wrongful death [5] claims on behalf of children who suffered injuries while a viable [6] fetus [7]. The case essentially overruled the opinion by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes [8], Jr. in Dietrich v. Inhabitants of Northampton (1884). However, the ability to sue was usually limited in two ways: the fetus...

"The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever? (1843), by Oliver Wendell Holmes

In 1843, physician Oliver Wendell Holmes [2] wrote and published "The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever," an essay about puerperal fever, a disease that occurs mainly as a result of bacterial infection in the uterine tract of women after giving birth or undergoing an abortion [3]. In the essay, Holmes argues that puerperal fever is spread through birth attendants like physicians and midwives wh...

Dietrich v. Inhabitants of Northampton [Brief] (1884)

This influential opinion by famed jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes [5], Jr. was copied by courts throughout the United States. For over sixty years, courts refused to recognize a cause of action on behalf of a child who died before or after birth as a result of injuries suffered in the womb [6] because the fetus [7] was considered legally a part of its mother and thus did not possess personhood [8]...

Re-Imagining Justice

Managerial Judging and the Evolution of Procedure