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24 Wayne L. Rev. 1555 (1977-1978)
On Answering the Call of Nature

handle is hein.journals/waynlr24 and id is 1571 raw text is: ON ANSWERING THE CALL OF NATURE RALPH SLOVENKOt Legislation and court decisions abound, regulating all manner of things. Doctors and other professionals may be held accountable for their experiments, but legislators and judges are shielded with immunity. Casting precedent aside, they order and re-order without pause as to what they have done, and without impact statements. With every liberal legislative or judicial act comes a time of reckoning, the day the real-world repercussions beyond those of the case at hand become manifest. We live in a complex and highly integrated world where every legislative or judicial action must have its inevitable reaction on those things that affect the quality and coherency of daily life. What is the effect of bussing on schools and neighborhoods? What is the effect of product- liability cases on manufacturing companies and businesses, particularly small ones unable to afford rising liability protec- tion costs? What is the impact of medical malpractice suits on the cost of health care? What is the effect of mental-health laws and suits on hospitals and staff? And what is the effect of increasing liability on an owner or occupier of premises? By way of illustration, this essay describes the impact on finding a toilet. Sigmund Freud in Civilization and Its Discontents' says that life as we find it is too hard for us-it brings too many pains, disappointments and impossible tasks. One of these im- possible tasks is fast becoming that of finding a public toilet. A clean, readily available toilet was once a touchstone of American civilization. The facility, known as a restroom, of- fered rest and comfort. While there has been no departure in cleanliness, access to a public restroom is vanishing. The threat of litigation and consequential insurance costs account for this development. Vandalism, the planting of ex- plosives, and sexual assaults are other factors prompting landlords to lock up. An owner or occupier of a building has been charged, by the courts, with an affirmative duty to make the premises safe for anyone who enters. Previously the duty was said to run only tProfessor of Law and Psychiatry, Wayne State University School of Law; author, PSYCHIATRY AND LAW (1973). 1. S. FREuD, CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS (1st Am. ed. 1962). 1555

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