Volume 1 discusses the problems inherent in allocating limited biomedical technologies: whose needs take precedence, what individual rights and responsibilities are involved, and when societal good justifies restricting individual good. Volume Two focuses on two substantive areas of biomedical policy beset by conflicts. Physicians, patients, and public officials are locked in new battles over whether and when life-extending technologies should be used or withdrawn. Meanwhile, researchers, government officials, and patients struggle to determine who will receive experimental medical treatment, and what procedures should be instituted to protect the recipients.

Robert H. Blank is professor of political science at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He has written fourteen books, including Rationing Medicine and Regulating Reproduction, both published by Columbia University Press. Andrea L. Bonnicksen is professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and author of Civil Rights and Liberties and In Vitro Fertilization, the latter published by Columbia University Press