Who deserves good health? It’s what we all want and shapes many of our decisions, but it’s not entirely within our control. The water we drink, air we breathe, and communities we live in all influence our health. How do we determine justice in healthcare? Some people have worse health because of factors beyond their control; is that fair? In this podcast episode, we’ll speak with a doctor who believes he owes his patients more than just competent care. We’ll consider how we decide, as a society, who gets priority when health resources are scarce, such as transplant organs. And we’ll hear a legal scholar’s take on what a system of “just health” looks like in the face of systemic inequality. How can we be sure that we’re not setting people up for shorter, sicker lives just because they have less power in society?

Podcast Guests:

Michael Stein, primary care physician, chair of Health Law, Policy & Management at Boston University School of Public Health, author of “Accidental Kindness” and “Me vs. Us”

Debra Selkirk, liver transplant equality activist

Jacob Appel, emergency room psychiatrist at Mount Sinai, professor of bioethics at Icahn School of Medicine, author of “Who Says You’re Dead?”

Dayna Bowen Matthew, Dean and Harold H. Greene Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School, author of the “Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America”

**This episode is part of Season 3 on Top of Mind: Finding Fairness. From health and immigration to prisons and pot, how can we get more peace and prosperity for all?