Preface.

• Author: Bostrom, Barry A.

In the lead article, Temple University law professor Stephen L. Mikochik, J.D., LL.M., begins by discussing Peter Singer's proposal for health care rationing that would include invidious discrimination against people with disabilities. Next he examines the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act and concludes that Congress has codified the potential for such discrimination in that Act. He argues that there must be a comprehensive limitation in the law against the misuse of comparative clinical effectiveness research that supports the rationing of human life. He concludes that no public official should have the discretion to treat the lives of people with disabilities as having lesser value than the lives of other people.

The second article, by J. Paul Singleton, J.D., written while a student at the University of Tennessee College of Law, examines the due process concerns that arise when engaging in comprehensive health care reform and regulation. First, he provides a background discussion detailing the factors necessitating health care reform in the United States. Second, he analyzes whether a constitutionally protected right to make personal health care decisions exists under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments' Due Process Clauses. Finally, he describes the susceptibility of government-sponsored health care to due process challenges and makes suggestions to avoid any potential fundamental rights violations.

The Verbatim section continues with chapters XXI through XXIII of Dr. Richard Fenigsen's new book Other People's...