"John Culhane has edited a volume of great originality and timeliness. The book covers many of the most politically and socially charged issues facing American health policy—birth and death, civil rights, violence, and tort litigation.[H]e, and the eminent authors he has assembled, do not rehash the same tired arguments and political divisions that characteristically envelop these political hot buttons. Readers are rescued from the tired values debates that paralyze effective policy discourse—the right to life, gun rights, gay rights, and so forth…. Instead, the book applies a population-based perspective, which illuminates what really is at stake. [I]t is truly remarkable that few scholars have stopped to rigorously examine what the consequence for the public’s health would be if decisions were made in certain directions. Culhane’s book admirably fills that gap in academic and policy discourse.Policy makers need to read Reconsidering Law and Policy Debates. Just as important, scholars in health law and bioethics need to begin to re-conceptualize their thinking and writing to incorporate the population based perspective. Culhane and his colleagues have opened a fresh pathway to reasoned scholarship and policy going forward for the most controversial issues of our day."-Lawrence O. GostinO’Neill Professor of Global Health LawGeorgetown University Law Center
