Legal Trends in Bioethics Summer 2007

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The laws governing bioethics issues are confusing and sometimes contradictory because of several types of tensions inherent in our legal system. Legislatures and courts work in different time frames and with different priorities. The U.S. constitutional guarantees of separation of church and state and individual rights make bioethics issues involving personal, moral, or religious convictions particularly contentious.
Each state also has its own constitutional protections, some of which clearly mirror those in the federal Constitution and others that don't.
Legislatures and courts play different roles in our constitutional republic. Legislatures are by nature democratic and can react relatively quickly to changes in the political climate. Courts, on the other hand, are inherently anti-democratic. As a matter of fact, their main con- stitutional function is to protect the rights es- tablished by our various constitutions from vio- lation by legislative action.

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