People v. State

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Insanity Awareness Month

October 24, 2011 By: John Kindley Category: Abortion and Breast Cancer

I remember a discussion I had with a law prof after class back in 1999 at the University of Wisconsin. We were discussing my student law review article, which had recently been selected for publication by my peers on law review. I had given it the overly long but descriptive title “The Fit Between the Elements for an Informed Consent Cause of Action and the Scientific Evidence Linking Induced Abortion with Increased Breast Cancer Risk.” I had started the article with the modestly academic goal of simply establishing the legal duty to inform women considering abortion of this scientific evidence, but was told by the editorial staff early on that to make the article interesting and important enough to be published I would need to demonstrate the actual viability of an actual cause of action based on breach of this duty. By the time the article was thoroughly researched and written, I was convinced that I had indeed invented the next big “toxic tort.” Apparently, the editorial staff was similarly if not identically persuaded, because they voted to publish the article.

So the law prof says to me: “You married?” “No.” “You got any kids?” “No.” “You might want to grab this thing by the tail and see where it takes you.” To the extent the prof’s words evoked the end of Moby Dick, they proved prophetic. My mind and my budding legal career were both boggled by the response of the legal system to this “cause of action,” and have remained boggled ever since.

Looking back, part of me fervently wishes I’d never stumbled on this issue. Part of me, especially in light of my present interests, wishes I’d sought a job as a public defender right out of law school instead of grabbing that tail. Normally being a published author on law review is expected to open doors, but in my case it’s shut them.

Perhaps I can’t blame only fate for my predicament. I’ve also struggled with a lifelong internal resistance to doing things I’m not passionate about, to earning a buck for the sake of a buck (even if that buck is necessary to the noble endeavor of keeping body and soul together), otherwise known as laziness. Or is that fate too?

And these days I again find myself, almost by compulsion, espousing what seems clear as day to me and yet is anathema to those around me, what marks me in the eyes of others as insane.

Part of me regrets grabbing that giant fish by the tail, but the better part of me doesn’t. Still, it’s awfully cold and lonely down here at the bottom of the sea.

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