Hastings Center bioethicist and philosopher Daniel Callahan says the common good as a moral value should be the foundation for American health care reform, but it has been largely absent from the current public debate.

Read an excerpt from a new book on medical technology costs and health care by Daniel Callahan, who advocates "an open discussion on what counts as good or bad choices, wise or imprudent ones, and our social obligations to our community as we make them."