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 healthcare 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 healthcare resources. Readers may find Camosy's 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 healthcare 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
Bakground photo by Jacoplane's parents, via Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-3.0