Juries, not politicians, Deserve Right to Determine Value of a Life

By Randall Kinnard

Medical malpractice took the life of teenager Jesica Santillan at Duke University. Someone got the heart and lungs intended for Jessica mixed up with organs that had blood incompatible with Jesica's. Therefore, the surgeons transplanted the wrong heart and lungs, and this killed her.

Unfortunately, medical mistakes happen because doctors and people who work in hospitals and nursing homes are human. They make mistakes sometimes, and they can cause irreparable harm or death.

More than 268 Americans die every day from medical negligence in hospitals, enough to fill a Boeing 707. But little attention is given to that fact, and little is done to prevent it. What do you think the reaction would be if a Boeing 707 crashed each day in America, killing everyone on board?

But what is the value of Jesica Santillan's life?

That is the debate over medical malpractice in Tennessee and in Washington, D.C. The medical industry and the big insurance companies who insure them are lobbying for an arbitrary one-size-fits-all limit, or ''cap,'' on the value of life in Tennessee.

The insurance industry and some politicians want to take away from juries - our friends, neighbors, co-workers and fellow citizens who do their patriotic duty by hearing all the facts in a case - the right to decide what a child's life, wrongfully taken, is worth.

They want a one-size-fits-all limit on non-economic damages - compensation for the most serious, life-altering injuries caused by medical malpractice or medical products. These are injuries like blindness, paralysis, loss of limbs, loss of fertility, loss of sexual function, gross disfigurement.

If medical malpractice causes you to go blind, what is the value of your vision? What is your being able to walk, instead of being paralyzed, worth? What is the life of your baby or your parent in a nursing home worth?

Economic damages, which the proposals wouldn't cap, are tangible out-of-pocket expenses, such as your doctor's bill, the hospital's bill for additional procedures to try to correct the problem caused by the malpractice and missed days of work.

But Jesica was 17 and had no job, so under Tennessee law she had virtually no economic value. Under the proposed state and federal laws sought by the big insurance companies and medical community, Jesica's parents would be told their beautiful daughter's life was worth no more than $250,000.

What parent would agree?

While the insurance industry wishes every person would have a standard value, the truth is that every person, every life, is unique and special. We, as humans, are not cars. You can learn the value of a Cadillac or a Chevrolet by looking it up in a standard book.

To place arbitrary limits on the value of life is to treat each of us as things, not people. The real value of human life and suffering should be determined by 12 citizens from the community, in the sanctity of the courtroom, where they have been deciding important issues in Tennessee for decades. Case by case. Life by life. Our jury system in Tennessee works, and juries - not insurance companies and politicians - should continue making these important decisions.

The big insurance companies claim that wild jury verdicts are the problem. Where are these outrageous verdicts happening? Certainly not in Tennessee.

Tennessee jurors render fair and reasonable judgments. Even if a jury were to do something bizarre, the judicial system in Tennessee would catch it and reverse it. The rule of law here requires all trial judges to reverse a jury should it award too much. The medical industry is protected from even the potential of a jury's awarding too much in Tennessee.

Should Tennesseans trust big insurance companies to dictate an arbitrary value for each person's life, or should the people of Tennessee trust 12 good, reasonable men and women who say what is fair in each person's case?

Trust the people.

Randall Kinnard is president of the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association and founding partner of Kinnard, Clayton and Beveridge in Nashville.