The late C. E. M. Joad, the Oxford-educated professor of philosophy at London University, once remarked that, while money cannot buy you happiness, it can at least buy you misery in comfort. This is the great principle upon which the Anglo-American law of tort seems to be founded: for every harm must have its equal and opposite financial compensation. Revenge is a dish best served in cash.
The case of Jesica Santillan, who died as a result of a heart and lung transplant negligently performed at Duke University Hospital, is likely to be used by those who oppose the bill in Congress to place a cap of $250,000 on jury awards for non-economic loss and suffering. But hard cases make bad law—or in this instance, unmake good law. We have in the end to decide whether we would prefer the chance of a huge award were we negligently treated to the chance of not being treated at all because medical malpractice premiums have risen so high that no one will dare to touch us. Personally, I would prefer to forgo my infinitesimal chance of hitting the malpractice jackpot.
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