ABSTRACT
In the initial deliberations, the expectations of most people seemed to be that heart and liver transplants had entered the therapeutic stage and would be recommended for coverage. The chapter draws on some implications about the basic ethic of the health care professions both from that experience and from the use of temporary artificial heart implants to tide patients over until a more permanent donor heart becomes available for transplant. It analyses several arguments about what sort of relative weight prior preventive care should have in relation to remedial crisis care in allocating health care resources and apply some of the conclusions to the case of coverage for heart and liver transplants. The expense level of heart and liver transplants usually makes them borderline cases in terms of money spent for results achieved; different rational individuals and rational groups can decide in different ways.
