READ THE HYPOTHETICAL BELOW:

Benny Milligan and his wife Tammie, along with their friend James McElveen and others, went walking through the rugged hills of Tennessee's Natchez Trace National Parkway. Milligan and McElveen, both in their early thirties, had been best friends since high school. Suddenly, McElveen tripped and plunged down a 30-foot cliff. Milligan and the others hurried to the rescue. They found their unconscious friend barely alive, his battered, bleeding body twisted and broken by the fall. Gently they carried him to their car and raced to Lewis County Community Hospital.

As they reached the hospital, Milligan remembered that his friend had no health insurance. Companions in the car recalled incidents of uninsured friends going untreated. They were terrified that McElveen would be denied admissionand die. As a doctor began examining McElveen in the back seat of the car, a hospital attendant gave the Milligans forms to fill out. They agreed between themselves to make sure that their friend was treated, and so they switched names, identifying their injured companion as Benny Milligan. Milligan, a longtime employee of Martin Marietta Corporation, received health insurance through NASA.

Doctors diagnosed McElveen with a burst vertebra and other serious injuries. The patient was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. When he became conscious, Milligan whispered to him the deception. Doctors later informed McElveen that with immediate surgery he should make a full recovery, having only a 30 percent chance of paralysis, but that if he delayed the operation the likelihood of paralysis increased to 90 percent. McElveen agreed to the surgery, relying on the fraudulently obtained insurance. Six surgeons spent nine hours repairing his broken back

McElveen made a full recoveryjust as NASA and its insurer learned of the trickery. Federal prosecutors charged both the Milligans and McElveen with defrauding the federal government, and a jury convicted. The judge sentenced Benny Milligan to nine months in prison and three years' probation, McElveen to seven months in prison and three years' probation, and Tammie Milligan to four months house confinement, permitting her to leave her home only for work, shopping, or child care duties.

NASA fired Benny Milligan. Instead of a full-time job, earning $12 an hour with health benefits, he must now get by on part-time work, generally earning about $8 per hour. He has no health insurance for himself, his wife, or their three young children. Tammie Milligan, now a felon, also lost her $75 per day waitress job, and earns about $100 per week in a diner. McElveen is out of work.

Federal law requires hospitals to furnish care to critically injured patients, regardless of their ability to pay. The hospital must stabilize the patient and do whatever is required to save his life. However, a recent study shows that frequently hospitals ignore this requirement. A report from the American Medical Association indicated that over 250,000 patients are turned away from hospitals in any given year because of inability to pay.

ANSWER THE QUESTIONS:

1. McElveen served seven months and Milligan nine months. Both were ordered to pay $13,000 in restitution. Milligan lost his job on the space shuttle (and along with it, his health benefits). What rationale(s) and statute(s) support punishment for the two?
2. If you had been the trial judge, would you have sentenced the defendants in a similar manner? Based on what rationale and law?
3. What argument could be made to show that what McElveen and friends did indicates nothing immoral about their decisions but rather something wrong with society?
4. In terms of money, which would be more costly to society: paying for McElveen's operation, or denying him the operation?
5. Research theEmergency Medical Treatment & Active Labor Act. This hypo presumes that law does not exist. How might this Act have changed the parties' behavior?