Academic

DUCK AND COVER (CONT?D): A Legal Manual For An Apocalyptic New York. Major disasters like terror?

By Glenn Reynolds

DUCK AND COVER (CONT’D): A Legal Manual For An Apocalyptic New York.

Major disasters like terrorist attacks and mass epidemics raise confounding issues for rescuers, doctors and government officials. They also pose bewildering legal questions, including some that may be painful to consider, like how the courts would decide who gets life-saving medicine if there are more victims than supplies. But courts, like fire departments and homicide detectives, exist in part for gruesome what-ifs. So this month, an official state legal manual was published in New York to serve as a guide for judges and lawyers who could face grim questions in another terrorist attack, a major radiological or chemical contamination or a widespread epidemic.

Hmm. I’m all for preparedness, but I do wonder what’s spurring this flowering of interest among the authorities. If there were a Republican in the White House it would all be put down to paranoia. So if it’s not paranoia, then what is it?

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on February 16, 2011 (boomark / email).