Speakers' Biographies

Creating Children with Disabilities:
Commentaries on Parental Tort Liability for Preimplantation Genetic Interventions

Featured Presenters

I. Glenn Cohen, Assistant Professor of Law
Harvard Law School

I. Glenn Cohen’s primary focus is in bioethics, health law, food and drug law, civil procedure, alternative dispute resolution, and family law with an emphasis on reproductive technology.  He received his B.A. from the University of Toronto and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.  Prior to accepting a position as an assistant professor of law at Harvard Law School, he worked as an appellate attorney in the honors program with the U.S. Department of Justice, and clerked for Chief Judge Michael Boudin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. His scholarly work includes, Intentional Diminishment, the Non-Identity Problem, and Legal Liability, 60 Hastings L.J. 347 (2008); The Constitution and the Right Not to Procreate, 60 Stan. L. Rev. 1135 (2008); The Right Not to Be a Genetic Parent?, 81 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1115 (2008); and Negotiating Death: ADR and End of Life Decision-making, 9 Harv. Negot. L. Rev. 253 (2004).

Jaime King, Associate Professor of Law
UC Hastings College of the Law

Jaime King’s primary focus is in health law, torts, assisted reproduction, and genetics.  She received her B.A. from Dartmouth College, her J.D. from Emory University School of Law, and her PhD in health policy with a concentration in ethics from Harvard University.  Before accepting a position as an associate professor at UC Hastings College of the Law, she worked as an associate at Morris, Manning, and Martin, LLP, held teaching fellowships at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Kennedy School of Government, and was a fellow at the Center for Law and Biosciences at Stanford Law School.  She has written and co-written several articles such as, Duty to the Unborn: A Response to Smolensky, 60 Hastings L.J. 377 (2008); Predicting Probability: Regulating the Future of Preimplantation Genetic Screening, 8 Yale J. Health Pol’y L. & Ethics 283 (2008); Toward the ‘Tipping Point’: Decision Aids and Informed Patient Choice, 26 Health Aff. 716 (May/June 2007); and Rethinking Informed Consent: The Case for Shared Medical Decision-Making, 32 Am. J.L. & Med. 429 (2006).

Alicia Ouellette, Associate Professor of Law
Albany Law School

Alicia R. Ouellette’s primary focus is in end-of-life decision making, disability ethics, pediatric ethics, disparities in health care, confidentiality of medical information, human reproduction, women’s health care, and ownership of the human body.  She received her A.B. from Hamilton College and her J.D. from Albany Law School where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Albany Law Review.  Prior to accepting a position as an associate professor of law at Albany Law School and professor of bioethics at Union Graduate College/Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, she clerked for Judge Howard A. Levine on the New York Court of Appeals and served the State of New York as an assistant solicitor general. Her scholarly work includes, Insult to Injury: A Disability-Sensitive Response to Smolensky’s Call for Parental Tort Liability for Preimplantation Genetic Interventions, 60 Hastings L.J. 397 (2008); Eyes Wide Open: Considering the Implications of a Case of Surgery to Westernize the Eyes of an Asian Child, Hastings Center Rev. (forthcoming 2008); Moral Reasoning in Judicial Decision on Same-Sex Marriage in PHILOSOPHY AND SEX, 4th ed. (forthcoming 2008); and Disability and the End of Life, 85 Or. L. Rev. 123 (2006).

Radhika Rao, Professor of Law
UC Hastings College of the Law

Radhika Rao’s primary focus is in biolaw, constitutional law, and property.  She received her B.S. at Harvard College and her J.D. at Harvard Law School where she served as a Supreme Court Editor for the Harvard Law Review.  Before accepting a position as a professor of law at UC Hastings College of the Law, she clerked for Judge Richard Cudahy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and for both Justices Harry Blackmun and Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court.  She has also practiced law at Heller Ehrman LLP, and taught law at Boalt Hall, Brooklyn Law School, the University of Michigan Law School, and the University of Trento in Italy.  Her scholarly work includes, Genes and Spleens: Property, Contract, or Privacy Rights in the Human Body?, 35 J.L. Med. & Ethics 371 (2007); What’s So Strange About Human Cloning?, 53 Hastings L.J. 1007 (2002); Property, Privacy, and the Human Body, 80 B.U. L. Rev. 359 (2000); and Reconceiving Privacy, Relationships and Reproductive Technology, 45 UCLA L. Rev. 1077 (1998). 

Kirsten Rabe Smolensky, Associate Professor of Law
James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona

Kirsten Rabe Smolensky’s primary focus is in torts, health law, and bioethics.  She received her B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. at the University of Chicago Law School.  Prior to accepting a position as an associate professor of law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, she practiced law at Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP, served as the Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, and the MacLean Ethics Fellow at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics.  Her scholarly work includes, Creating Children with Disabilities: Parental Tort Liability for Preimplantation Genetic Interventions, 60 Hastings L.J. 299 (2008); Defining Life from the Perspective of Death: An Introduction to the Forced Symmetry Approach, 2006 U. Chi. Legal F. 41 (2006); Telemedicine Reimbursement: Raising the Iron Triangle to a New Plateau, 13 Health Matrix: J.L.-Med. 371 (2003); and Any DNA to Declare? Regulating Offshore Access to Genetic Enhancement, 28 Am. J.L. & Med. 169 (2002).