Abstract
The golden era of American medicine that followed World War II witnessed the greatest scientific explosion of medical knowledge in the history of mankind. These developments have included antibiotics, defeat of venereal disease, discovery of the Rh factor, safe blood transfusions, intravenous alimentation, open heart surgery, space medicine, and intricate monitoring devices. These accomplishments also include hemodialysis and transplantation for the treatment of one catastrophic disease—kidney failure. These great breakthroughs were accomplished by dedicated medical researchers without stringent peer review forced on them by reason of their very successes. Catastrophic Diseases: Who Decides What? is a review of those many forces that now limit scientific progress in the field of medicine today. End-stage renal disease (ESRD), involving the glamor of life-saving hemodialysis and the dream of producing the Greek chimera through renal transplantation, has been selected by our peers in government as a model for the socialization of medicine.
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