Too Expensive to Treat?: Finitude, Tragedy, and the Neonatal ICU

In Too Expensive to Treat? Charles Camosy takes readers deep into the emotionally charged and expensive world of the neonatal intensive care unit to examine the hard truth about heath care rationing in the United States. While fully affirming the human worth of even the tiniest baby, Camosy maintains that all people have equal dignity and should have an equal right to a proportionate share of community health care resources. Readers may find Camosys arguments provocative, even troubling but the conversation he draws them into is one that cannot be ignored. A substantial contribution to the literature on controlling health-care costs. . . . Camosy has written a provocative book, marrying the ordinary/extraordinary means tradition to Catholic social teaching and arguing that it is morally necessary to take costs into account in making decisions about who should receive high-tech neonatal intensive care. Since the magnitude of the problems Camosy addresses will only increase, this is a book that should be read for years to come. Daniel Sulmasy University of Chicago This book is a must-read for neonatologists and bioethicists, for religious leaders of all Christian traditions, and for policy makers. While Camosy focuses on the imperiled newborn and Medicaid, his argument could easily be expanded to imperiled cases of any age. Steven R. Leuthner Medical College of Wisconsin Camosy not only shows us how to solve a pressing social and bioethical problem. He also shows us how principles regarding human dignity, ordinary and extraordinary means, and social justice unite to form a coherent bioethical approach to health care justice that resonates far beyond the Catholic tradition. Camosys proposal will delight some and disturb others, but it deserves the closest attention of neonatologists, bioethicists, health policy experts, and anyone who hopes for a more just health care system in the United States. Gerald McKenny University of Notre Dame