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Faculty
Karen Rothenberg
Marjorie Cook Professor of Law
Phone: (410) 706-2429
Fax: (410) 706-0407
E-mail:
Office: 244
BA, 1973, MPA, 1974, Princeton University
JD, 1979, University of Virginia
Karen H. Rothenberg, J.D., M.P.A., is the Marjorie Cook Professor of Law, founding Director of the Law & Health Care Program, and served as Dean of the University of Maryland School of Law from 1999-2009.
Professor Rothenberg is a leading national expert on legal issues in health care. Over the last decade she has focused her research primarily on the ethical, legal and social implications of genetic testing and research, including the legislative approaches to genetic information in the health insurance and employment context, the impact of genetic research on racial and ethnic populations and women’s health care, and the use of genetic information in the courtroom. Professor Rothenberg is co-editor of the text Women and Prenatal Testing: Facing the Challenges of Genetic Technology and co-author of five articles on genetics and public policy that have been published in the journal Science, the most recent of which is “Judging Genes: When Should Judges Admit or Compel Genetic Tests?” Her other research interests include health insurance, privacy, the role of gender in health care, AIDS, research ethics, the right to forego treatment, emergency care, and new reproductive technologies. She has testified before federal and state legislatures on a wide range of issues, including the U.S. House of Representatives’ Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2007. Professor Rothenberg is Chair of the Maryland Stem Cell Commission and served as a co-Chair of the 2009 World Stem Cell Summit. Her current research sabbatical includes studying the use of theatre as an innovative tool to identify and encourage discussion of the unique ethical, legal and social issues posed by emerging technologies in health care. During the 2009-10 academic year, she is a Scholar-in-Residence at Columbia Law School and a Senior Sabbatical Fellow at its Center for the Study of Law and Culture, and a Visiting Professor at the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. In 2010, Professor Rothenberg is a Special Advisor to the President of UMB, consulting on stem cell issues and other interdisciplinary initiatives related to innovations in health care.
Professor Rothenberg was the first woman to serve as chief executive and academic officer of the University of Maryland School of Law in its 185-year history. Under her leadership, the School of Law opened a new, state-of-the-art academic facility, strengthened its national stature in legal areas including health care, the environment and clinical education, and ascended into the top tier of law schools. She oversaw the creation of numerous programs – in areas including business law, intellectual property law, international law, and women’s leadership – and launched the innovative “Linking Law & the Arts” initiative, which uses theatre and art to help address complex legal issues and further public understanding of the law.
Professor Rothenberg is a past president of the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics and former co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics. During sabbaticals from the law school, she has worked at NIH in the Office of Research on Women’s Health, the National Institute for Child Health & Human Development, and the National Human Genome Research Institute. She has also served as a member of the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, the National Action Plan for Breast Cancer, and on numerous NIH panels on prenatal care, the recruitment and retention of women in clinical studies, and the ethical, legal and social implications of genetics.
Before joining the Maryland Law faculty, Professor Rothenberg practiced with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Covington and Burling and has worked with a variety of health and medical organizations. A member of the American Law Institute, Professor Rothenberg received Equal Justice Works’ 2007 Dean John R. Kramer Award in recognition of her national prominence in promoting public service in legal education. In the same year she was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame, and named to the Daily Record’s inaugural group of “50 Most Influential Marylanders.” Professor Rothenberg was the 1996 recipient of the Joseph Healey Health Law Teachers Award presented by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics. Named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women three times by the Daily Record, she earned induction into the publication’s Circle of Excellence in 2008.
She received both a B.A., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Princeton University and an M.P.A. from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law where she was a member of the Order of the Coif.
Books
Women and Prenatal Testing: Facing the Challenges of Genetic Technology (1994) (editor, with E. Thomson).
Articles
Judging Genes: Implications of the Second Generation of Genetic Tests in the Courtroom, 66 Maryland Law Review 858 (2007). [Full Text]
National Institutes of Health State-of-the-Science Conference Statement Cesarean Delivery on Maternal Request, 107 Obstetrics and Gynecology 1386 (2006). [Full Text]
The Scarlet Gene: Behavioral Genetics, Criminal Law, and Racial and Ethnic Stigma, Law and Contemporary Problems, Winter/Spring 2006, at 343 (with Alice Wang).
Science and Law: When Should Judges Admit or Compel Genetic Tests?, 310 Science 241 (2005) (with Diane Hoffmann). [Full Text]
Whose Duty is it Anyway?: The Kennedy Krieger Opinion and its Implications for Public Health Research, 6 Journal of Health Care Law & Policy 109 (2002) (with Diane Hoffmann). [Full Text]
Consent to the Use of Stored DNA for Genetics Research: A Survey of Attitudes in the Jewish Population, 98 American Journal of Medical Genetics 336 (2001) [Full Text]
The Practice of Law, 31 University of Toledo Law Review 731 (2000) [Full Text]
The Social Implications of the Use of Stored Tissue Samples: Context, Control, and Community, in Genetic Testing and the Use of Information 84 (C. Long, ed. 1999). [Full Text]
Being Human: Cloning and the Challenges for Public Policy, 27 Hofstra Law Review 639 (1999). [Full Text]
Toward a Framework of Mutualism: The Jewish Community in Genetics Research,1 Community Genetics 148 (1998). [Full Text]
Women's Health and Predictive Genetic Testing: Ethical, Legal and Social Challenges, in Genetics and Women's Health 17 (1997).
Genetic Discrimination and Health Insurance: A Call for Legislative Action, 52 Journal of the American Medical Women's Association 43 (1997). [Full Text]
Genetic Information Challenges for Public Policy, in Exploring Public Policy Issues in Genetics 98 (Mark S. Frankel, ed. 1997).
Breast Cancer, The Genetic 'Quick Fix,' and the Jewish Community, 7 Health Matrix: Journal of Law-Medicine 97 (1997). [Full Text]
Genetic Information and the Workplace: Legislative Approaches and Policy Challenges, 275 Science 1755 (1997) (with others). [Full Text]
Cancer Genetics Susceptibility Testing: Ethical and Policy Implications for Future Research and Clinical Practice, 25 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 243 (1997) (with others). [Full Text]
Women of Childbearing Potential in Clinical Research: Perspectives on NIH Policy and Liability Issues, 13 Food, Drug, Cosmetic and Medical Device Law Digest 7 (1996) (with others). [Full Text]
Predictive Genetic Testing for Cancer: Ethical, Legal, Social and Public Policy Challenges, in Accomplishments in Cancer Research 209 (1996).
Reproductive Choice and Reality: An Assessment of Tort Liability for Health-Care Providers and Women with HIV/AIDS, in HIV, AIDS & Childbearing: Public Policy, Private Lives (Fade & Kans, eds.1996).
Feminism, Law and Bioethics, 6 Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 69 (1996). [Full Text]
Gender Matters: Implications for Clinical Research and Women's Health Care, 32 Houston Law Review 1201 (1996). [Full Text]
New Perspectives for Teaching & Scholarship: The Role of Gender in Law and Health Care, 54 Maryland Law Review 473 (1995). [Full Text]
The Risk of Domestic Violence and Women with HIV Infection: Implications for Partner Notification, Public Policy, and the Law, 85 American Journal of Public Health 1569 (1995) (with S. Paskey).
Genetic Information and Health Insurance: State Legislative Approaches, 23 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 312 (1995).
Gestational Surrogacy and the Health Care Provider, in The Beginning of Human Life 101 (F.K. Belle & R. F. Weir, eds. 1994).
The Good Mother: The Limits of Reproductive Accountability and Genetic Choice, in Women and Prenatal Testing: Facing the Challenges of Genetic Technology (Rothenberg and Thomson, ed. 1994) (with A. Charo).
Something Old, Something New: The Challenge of Tuberculosis Control in the Age of AIDS, 42 Buffalo Law Review 715 (1994) (with Law Lovoy). [Full Text]
The Law's Response to Reproductive Genetic Testing: Questioning Assumptions About Choice, Causation, and Control, 8 Fetal Diagnosis & Therapy 160 (1993). [Full Text]
Reproductive Genetic Testing: Impact Upon Women--Introduction, 8 Fetal Diagnosis & Therapy 2 (1993) (with E. Thomson).
Partner Notification and the Threat of Domestic Violence Against Women with HIV Infection, 329 New Eng. J. Med. 1194 (1993) (with R. North). [Full Text]
National Institute of Health Workshop Statement -- Reproductive Genetic Testing: Impact on Women, 51 Am. J. Human Genetics 1161 (1992) (with E. Thomson, et al.) [Full Text]
Myth and Reality: The Threat of Medical Malpractice Claims by Low Income Women, 20 Law, Medicine & Health Care 403 (1992). [Full Text]
The Duty to Warn 'Dilemma' and Women with AIDS: Redefining the 'Foreseeable Victim', 2 Courts, Health Science & the Law 90 (1991) (with R.Law North), reprinted in Contemporary Issues in Bioethics (1994).
Gestational Surrogacy and the Health Care Provider: Put Part of the 'IVF Genie' Back Into the Bottle, 18 Law, Medicine & Health Care 345 (1991). [Full Text]
Surrogacy and the Health Care Professional: Baby M and Beyond, in Surrogate Motherhood: Politics and Privacy, 184 Indiana Univ. Press 201 (1990).
The Right to Forego Life-Sustaining Treatment: Legal Trends and Emerging Issues, 11 Journal of Health and Human Resources Administration 480 (1989) [Full Text]
The Duty to Warn Dilemma: A Framework for Resolution, 4 AIDS & Public Policy Journal 133 (1989) (with R. Law North).
Foregoing Life-Sustaining Treatment: What are the Legal Limits in an Aging Society?, 33 St. Louis University Law Journal 575 (1989). [Full Text]
Who Cares?: The Evolution of the Legal Duty to Provide Emergency Care, 26 Houston Law Review 21 (1989), reprinted in Personal Injury Review 253 (1989) and Specialty Law Digest: Health Care 7 (1990). [Full Text]
Baby M, The Surrogacy Contract, and the Health Law Professional: Unanswered Questions, 16 Law, Medicine & Health Care 113 (1988) [Full Text]
Psychosocial, Legal, and Ethical Dimensions of Ultra-sound Imaging in Pregnancy, in Diagnostic Ultrasound Imaging in Pregnancy (1984) (with others). [Full Text]
Note, The Application of the Tarasoff Duty to Forensic Psychiatry, 66 Virginia Law Review (1980).
