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Scholars have long noted that the field of health care law lacks cohesion. They speak in terms of the" pathologies" of health law, or its contradictory and competing" paradigms," which constitute a" chaotic, dysfunctional patchwork." 1 This conceptual disarray exists because, unlike other areas of law, no unifying principle or animating concern has yet been identified for the law of health care delivery. 2 For example, family law is concerned with rights and obligations arising from intimate relationships, environmental law is built around a set of core statutes, and intellectual property law applies general property principles to intangible constructs. The field of health care law, in contrast, is largely a creature of happenstance. As currently taught and studied, it consists of disparate areas of law and regulation that happen to apply to doctors, hospitals, and health insurers, categorized by the concerns that happen to have …