David Shactman

Winding through the neighborhoods of Greater Boston, Mortal Choice takes readers into the shadow world of black-market kidneys, where an African American FBI agent whose eight-year-old daughter needs a kidney confronts ethical dilemmas in her roles as both mother and agent. When a young man is found murdered with his organs missing, Cassandra Crawford's FBI boss pressures her to go undercover and conduct a sting. The case takes Crawford and her daughter to New Delhi, where Crawford faces a mother's terrible choice. Does she dare subvert the investigation to get her daughter a life-saving kidney? Back home, her friend and collaborator, Boston Detective Martin Goldberg, tracks down the killer. A harrowing chase through the city of Boston resolves the murder mystery, but Crawford is blackmailed by her boss about her decision in New Delhi. The steel-willed protagonist must decide what moral compromises she is willing to make to save her daughter's future. Crawford executes an ingenious plan but fears that its revelation will ruin her unlikely relationship with Goldberg. Although the white, Jewish, Boston Detective thinks he is aware of their differences, he is shocked to realize what she was willing to do. Yet, he understands that "a sentence of death can bend the moral compass." Through the vehicle of a tense murder mystery, Shactman has created a story that will pull on the heartstrings of any parent. What if it was your daughter? Would you compromise your morals? Would you break the law? How far would you go to save the life of your only child?

Winding through the neighborhoods of Greater Boston, Mortal Choice takes readers into the shadow world of black-market kidneys, where an African American FBI agent whose eight-year-old daughter needs a kidney confronts ethical dilemmas in her roles as both mother and agent. When a young man is found murdered with his organs missing, Cassandra Crawford's FBI boss pressures her to go undercover and conduct a sting. The case takes Crawford and her daughter to New Delhi, where Crawford faces a mother's terrible choice. Does she dare subvert the investigation to get her daughter a life-saving kidney? Back home, her friend and collaborator, Boston Detective Martin Goldberg, tracks down the killer. A harrowing chase through the city of Boston resolves the murder mystery, but Crawford is blackmailed by her boss about her decision in New Delhi. The steel-willed protagonist must decide what moral compromises she is willing to make to save her daughter's future. Crawford executes an ingenious plan but fears that its revelation will ruin her unlikely relationship with Goldberg. Although the white, Jewish, Boston Detective thinks he is aware of their differences, he is shocked to realize what she was willing to do. Yet, he understands that "a sentence of death can bend the moral compass." Through the vehicle of a tense murder mystery, Shactman has created a story that will pull on the heartstrings of any parent. What if it was your daughter? Would you compromise your morals? Would you break the law? How far would you go to save the life of your only child?

Essential reading for every American who must navigate the US health care system. Why was the Obama health plan so controversial and difficult to understand? In this readable, entertaining, and substantive book, Stuart Altman-internationally recognized expert in health policy and adviser to five US presidents-and fellow health care specialist David Shactman explain not only the Obama health plan but also many of the intriguing stories in the hundred-year saga leading up to the landmark 2010 legislation. Blending political intrigue, policy substance, and good old-fashioned storytelling, this is the first book to place the Obama health plan within a historical perspective. The authors describe the sometimes haphazard, piece-by-piece construction of the nation's health care system, from the early efforts of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman to the later additions of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. In each case, they examine the factors that led to success or failure, often by illuminating little-known political maneuvers that brought about immense shifts in policy or thwarted herculean efforts at reform. The authors look at key moments in health care history: the Hill-Burton Act in 1946, in which one determined poverty lawyer secured the rights of the uninsured poor to get hospital care; the "three-layer cake" strategy of powerful House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Wilbur Mills to enact Medicare and Medicaid under Lyndon Johnson in 1965; the odd story of how Medicare catastrophic insurance was passed by Ronald Reagan in 1988 and then repealed because of public anger in 1989; and the fact that the largest and most expensive expansion of Medicare was enacted by George W. Bush in 2003. President Barack Obama is the protagonist in the climactic chapter, learning from the successes and failures chronicled throughout the narrative. The authors relate how, in the midst of a worldwide financial meltdown, Obama overcame seemingly impossible obstacles to accomplish what other presidents had tried and failed to achieve for nearly one hundred years.