Maxwell J. Mehlman

: Arthur E. Petersilge Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University and the Director of the Law-Medicine Center at Case Western University’s School of Medicine

Maxwell J. Mehlman is the Arthur E. Petersilge Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University and the Director of the Law-Medicine Center at Case Western University’s School of Medicine.

Professor Mehlman received a BA from Reed College in 1970 and a JD from Yale Law School in 1975. In between college and law school, he was a Rhodes Scholar, earning his second Bachelor’s Degree from Oxford University in 1972. After completing law school, he practiced with the Washington D.C. firm of Arnold & Porter, where he specialized in federal regulation of medical technology. He joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 1984. Since 1986, he has been the Director of the Law-Medicine Center. The National Institutes of Health recently awarded Professor Mehlman a significant two-year grant to review, and then address, any public policy gaps in guidelines and ethical differences between therapeutic and enhancement genetic research that involves human subjects.

His principal areas of research and teaching include: the patient-physician relationship; the rights of patients; genetics, ethics, and the law; biomedical enhancement; quality assurance and malpractice; rationing; and health reform.

His recent publications include: Genetics: Ethics, Law and Policy [Second Edition] (2006, co-authored with Lori Andrews and Mark Rothstein); and Wondergenes: Genetic Enhancement and the Future of Society (2003).

Featured Presentation:

“Improved Humans: Legal and Political Aspects of the New Genetics”
Templeton Research Lecture
November 12, 2008
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“Directed Evolution: Public Policy and Human Enhancement”
Templeton Research Lecture
April 20, 2009
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