Book Section: Essays and Review: Distributive Justice and the New Medicine

In this concise volume, Professor George P. Smith III ambitiously tackles some of the most controversial topics in modern science, health and medicine. Smith, a law professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., is the author of numerous books on bioethical topics. Here, he examines four subjects under the heading “the new medicine”—modern American health care, genetic technology, human experimentation, and organ transplantation—all through a utilitarian lens (p. 8). In particular, he focuses on how new technologies and resources should be allocated in order to maximize social utility, which is Smith’s concept of distributive justice.