Mortal Peril

by Epstein, Richard A.

• ISBN13: 9780738201894
• ISBN10: 0738201898
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-01
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

Most Americans assume that universal access to health care is a desirable and humane political goal. Not so, says distinguished legal scholar Richard Epstein. In this seminal work, he explodes the unspoken assumption that a government-administered, universal health-care system would be a boon to America. Basing his argument in our common law traditions that limit the collective responsibility for an individual's welfare, he provides a political and economic analysis which suggests that unregulated provision of health care will, in the long run, guarantee greater access to quality medical care for more people. He also authoritatively documents the ways in which government regulation has actually reduced the availability of organs for vitally needed transplants, and has interfered with a sensible policy toward euthanasia.

Table of Contents

Preface: Seen But Not Heard	ix
Introduction: Hard Truths and Fresh Starts	1	(24)
PART ONE: ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE	25	(192)
Positive Rights to Health Care
A Positive Case for Positive Rights	27	(16)
Practical Obstacles to Positive Rights	43	(16)
Limited Access
Demanded Care: An Exercise in Futility	59	(22)
Necessity and Indigent Care: The Right to Say No	81	(26)
Wealth and Disability	107	(14)
Community Rating and Pre-existing Conditions	121	(26)
Comprehensive Care
Medicare: The Third Rail of American Politics	147	(38)
Clintoncare: The Shipwreck	185	(32)
PART TWO: SELF-DETERMINATION AND CHOICE	217	(200)
Interlude	219	(2)
Organ Transplantation
Alienability and Its Limitations: Of Surrogacy and Baby-Selling	221	(16)
The Present: Shortages Without Solution	237	(12)
Transplantation: The Supply Side	249	(14)
Organ Transplantation: The Demand Side	263	(20)
Death and Dying
Active Euthanasia	283	(16)
Physician-Assisted Suicide	299	(14)
Abuse and Overreaching	313	(16)
Unwelcome Constitutional Complications	329	(16)
Incompetence	345	(14)
Liability
History, Doctrine, and Evolution of Liability	359	(22)
The Efficiency of the Liability System	381	(14)
The Reform of the Liability System	395	(22)
Postscript	417	(18)
Endnotes	435	(44)
Table of Cases	479	(6)
Index	485