Department of law and ethics

Abstract

Is There a Constitutional Right to Health Care?

William Curran (1) points out that the Supreme Court has twice held that state and federal legislatures do not have legal obligations to fund abortions for the indigent. The cases were Maher v. Roe and Harris v. McRae decided respectively in 1977 and 1980 (1). In the face of these decisions, he discusses a case decided in 1987 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. According to Curran, Toni Wideman, 4 months pregnant, experienced severe abdominal pain. She arranged to meet her obstetrician immediately at Piedmont Hospital and called for an emergency vehicle. Against her repeated protests, however, the ambulance took her to Shallowford Community Hospital because the county had an arrangement for emergency services with Shallowford. Mrs. Wideman waited for some time to see a doctor, who then spoke with her obstetrician over the telephone. The obstetrician requested that she be transferred to Piedmont. At Piedmont, Mrs. Wideman gave birth to a premature infant who died within hours.