Max Mehlman, J.D. – Arthur E. Petersilge Professor of Law and Director of the Law-Medicine Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Dear Colleagues:

STE-ROIDS, STE-ROIDS, STE-ROIDS…. Many of us have heard the chant – or chanted ourselves, when a slugger for some enemy team came to home plate. Performance-enhancing drugs and their alleged evil bursts into the headlines – mostly the sports pages but sometimes the front page – with controversies over superstar athletes from Lance Armstrong to Alex Rodriguez.

But what, exactly, is the problem here? Athletes have been “artificially’ improving their performance for a very long time. Much of that involves equipment (check out hockey goalies’ pads these days), but Jim Bouton’s classic Ball Four described widespread use of “greenies” (amphetamines) in baseball in the 1960s. Baseball players have long ingested nicotine even during games, through chewing tobacco. When athletes ingest drugs those drugs may be dangerous to their health – but if that’s our concern, why is football legal?

Professor Mehlman views drugs in sports as part of a broader set of questions that he addressed in The Price of Perfection: Individualism and Society in the Era of Biomedical Enhancement (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). He sees little logic in current policies about what is allowed and what is not, and makes the case for a much more targeted approach to any regulation.

All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guest

Maxwell J. Mehlman received his J.D. 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 University School of Law 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. He 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 second edition; and author of Wondergenes: Genetic Enhancement and the Future of Society, published in 2003 by the Indiana University Press. His latest books are entitled The Price of Perfection: Individualism and Society in the Era of Biomedical Enhancement (Johns Hopkins University Press) and Transhumanist Dreams and Dystopian Nightmares: The Promise and Peril of Genetic Engineering (Johns Hopkins University Press).

Where We Meet

The Friday Public Affairs Lunch convenes each Friday when classes are in session, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. We usually meet in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library. The Dampeer Room is on the second floor of the library. If you get off the elevators, turn right, pass the first bank of tables, and turn right again. Occasionally we need to use a different room; that will always be announced in the weekly e-mails.

Parking Possibilities

The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.

Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

November 1: Press Freedom and the Edward Snowden Affair. With Jim Sheeler, Shirley Wormser Professor of Journalism and Media Writing.

November 8: Is It or Is It Not Cancer? Is That the Question? With Nathan A. Berger, Distinguished University Professor and Director, Center for Science, Health and Society.

November 15: The Opportunity Corridor and Beyond: Transportation Issues in University Circle. With Debbie Berry, Vice President of Development, University Circle Inc.

November 22: Economic Effects of Health Care Reform: The Massachusetts Experience. With Mark Votruba, Associate Professor of Economics.

November 29 : No Session – Thanksgiving Break

December 6: TBA