I Guess, As An Emanuel, I Have

We Don't Have Enough Solid Organs For Transplantation; Not Enough Kidneys, Livers, Hearts, Lungs. When You Get A Liver And You Have Three People Who Need It, Who Should Get It? We Tried To Come Up With An Ethically Defensible Answer. Because We Have To Choose.

Reasoning Based On Cost Has Been Strenuously Resisted; It Violated The Hippocratic Oath, Was Associated With Rationing, And Derided As Putting A Price On Life... Indeed, Many Physicians Were Willing To Lie To Get Patients What They Needed From Insurance Companies That Were Trying To Hold Down Costs.

The Situation Around Terri Schiavo Was A Deeply Held Conflict Over What To Do If Someone Isn't Going To Return To Consciousness Or Competence. Who Will Decide? Even There, Where We Had Settled Legal Rules, We Still Had Disagreement. We're Torn About These Things.

Patients Who Are Being Kept Alive By Technology And Want To End Their Lives Already Have A Recognized Constitutional Right To Stop Any And All Medical Interventions, From Respirators To Antibiotics. They Do Not Need Physician-assisted Suicide Or Euthanasia.

Doctors Take The Hippocratic Oath Too Seriously, As An Imperative To Do Everything For The Patient Regardless Of The Cost Or Effects On Others