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Synopsis
From the author of Setting Limits comes a challenging exploration of the proper goals of medicine in our rapidly changing society--a work destined to spark debate and influence policy for years to come.
Library Journal
Callahan, medical ethicist, co-founder of the Hastings Center, and author of Abortion: Law, Choice and Morality (o.p.), makes a complex and largely logic-based argument here for the rationing of health care. In rather formal philosophical style, he proposes a reconstitution of American health care, suggests a ``biographical'' life span after which intervention would be limited to caring rather than curing, and outlines the changes necessary in the political climate for such an adjustment. His proposal--of a ``pyramid'' of health care, in which measures that benefit the largest number of people are widely available, and specialized care, such as transplant surgery, is rationed on an individual cost/benefit basis--will be highly controversial. Essential for collections in health, medicine, and the social sciences, but heavy going for most lay readers. Excellent end notes.-- Mark L. Shelton, Columbus, Ohio