Michael H. Shapiro
USC Gould School of Law

Michael H. Shapiro specializes in bioethics and in constitutional law, and in particular, medical and legal ethical issues surrounding research and experimentation; reproductive, genetic, and behavior control; and death and dying. He taught Constitutional Law and Bioethics and Law.

A prolific author on medical ethics and legal questions in the advent of new technologies, Shapiro has written Cases, Materials, and Problems on Bioethics and Law, 2^nd ed. (with others, Thomson West, 2003), “Human Enhancement Uses of Biotechnology, Policy, Technological Enhancement and Human Equality” in Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal, and Policy Issues in Biotechnology (Wiley, 2000), and “The Identity of Identity: Moral and Legal Aspects of Technological Self-Transformation” (Journal of Social Philosophy and Policy, 2005).

Professor Shapiro earned his BA and MA from the UCLA and earned his JD from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was associate editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. He practiced with Swerdlow, Glikbarg & Shimer; was a staff attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance; and was a staff attorney, assistant director of litigation, and acting director of litigation at the Western Center on Law & Poverty. Shapiro lectured at USC Gould School of Law in 1966 and joined the USC Gould faculty again in 1970. He also has taught at Yale Law School and UCLA Law School. Shapiro sat on the Institutional Review Board for Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, reviewed proposals to Study the Human Genome Project for the U.S. Department of Energy, and is a member of the Pacific Council for Health Policy and Ethics.

Books

• Cases, Materials, and Problems on Bioethics and Law, 2nd ed. (with others) (Thomson West, 2003).
• Biological and Behavioral Technologies and the Law (editor and author) (Praeger, 1982).
• Bioethics and the Law: Cases, Materials, and Problems (with Roy G. Spece, Jr.) (West, 1981; 1985 and 1991 Supplements).

Articles and Book Chapters

• "Updating Constitutional Doctrine: An Extended Response to the Critique of Compulsory Vaccination." 12 Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics 87 (2012). - (Hein)
• "What Should Insurance Insure in the PPACA Age? On Paying for Other People's Reproductive Decisions and Ambitions." 33 Whittier Law Review 27 (2011). - (Hein)
• “Argument Selection in Constitutional Law: Choosing and Reconstructing Conceptual Systems.” 18 Southern California Review of Law & Social Justice 209 (2009). - (SSRN)
• “Individual Rights, Just Access to Health Care, and Public Health Measures in ‘Normal’ Times and in Times of Crisis: Changes in Basic Principles, or Changes in Their Application, or Both?” In Bioterrorism and Human Rights (Roy Branson, ed.) (Center for Law and Public Policy with the Center for Christian Ethics, Loma Linda University, 2005).
• “The Identity of Identity: Moral and Legal Aspects of Technological Self-Transformation.” 22 (2) Social Philosophy and Policy 308 (2005).
• "David Carroll Did Not Want to Be a Role Model.” 78 Southern California Law Review 9 (2004). - (Hein)
• “On the Possibility of ‘Progress’ in Managing Biomedical Technologies: Markets, Lotteries, and Rational Moral Standards in Organ Transplantation” (Symposium: Thinking About Biomedical Advances: The Role of Ethics and Law). 31 Capital University Law Review 13 (2003). - (Hein)
• “Does Technological Enhancement of Human Traits Threaten Human Equality and Democracy?” 39 San Diego Law Review 769 (2002). - (Hein)
• "Constitutional Adjudication and Standards of Review under Pressure from Biological Technologies." 11 Health Matrix 351 (Summer 2001).
• "Human Enhancement Uses of Biotechnology, Policy, Technological Enhancement and Human Equality." In Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal, and Policy Issues in Biotechnology (Thomas H. Murray and Maxwell Mehlman, eds.) (Wiley, 2000).
• "An Orphan's Story: What We Do at USC Law." 74 Southern California Law Review 311 (2000). - (Hein)
• "I Want a Girl (Boy), Just Like the Girl (Boy) That Married Dear Old Dad (Mom): Cloning Lives." 9 Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal 1 (1999). - (Hein)
• "The Impact of Genetic Enhancement on Equality." 34 Wake Forest Law Review 561 (1999). - (Hein)
• "Is Bioethics Broke? On the Idea of Ethics and Law 'Catching Up' with Technology." 33 Indiana Law Review 17 (1999). - (Hein)
• "Lawyers, Judges and Bioethics." 5 Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal 113 (1997). - (Hein)
• "Illicit Reasons and Means for Reproduction: On Excessive Choice and Categorical and Technological Imperatives." 47 Hastings Law Journal 1081 (1996). - (Hein)
• "How (Not) to Think About Surrogacy and Other Reproductive Innovations" (Symposium: Surrogacy Legislation in California). 28 University of San Francisco Law Review 647 (1994). - (Hein)
• "Law, Culpability, and the Neural Sciences." In The Neurotransmitter Revolution: Serotonin, Social Behavior, and the Law (R. Masters & M. McGuire, eds.) (Southern Illinois University Press, 1994).
• "Regulation as Language: Communicating Values By Altering the Contingencies of Choice" (Symposium on Biotechnology Law). 55 University of Pittsburgh Law Review 681 (1994). - (Hein)

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

Politi Fact
May 23, 2023
Re: David B. Cruz

Professor David Cruz was recently interviewed about a controversial bill that was passed in Connecticut. "Paying even modest attention to the bill’s definitions should make it clear beyond doubt that it will not be the source of protections based upon the age of people to whom one is attracted or with whom one has sex," Cruz said.

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Robin Craig
April, 2023

"Marine Biodiversity: Trends, Targets, and the BBNJ," Lewis and Clark School of Law 2023 Environmental Law Symposium: Protecting Biodiversity: Five Decades of Progress but an Uncertain Future, Portland, OR, April 7, 2023.

Jonathan Barnett
April, 2023

Comment Letter from Law Professors, Economists, and Business School Professors to the Federal Trade Commission on Proposed Non-Compete Clause Rule, Jonathan Barnett (co-lead author, with Adam Mossoff and Ted Sichelman), April 19, 2023.

Robin Craig
April, 2023

"Survival Equity and Climate Change Triage: How to Decide Who Lives and Who Dies," presentation as part of Adapting to a Warming World: Perspectives from the Environmental Law Collaborative, Hubbell Environmental Law Initiative, University of Iowa School of Law, Iowa City, IA, April 14, 2023.