On Thu, 16 May 2019 20:39:46 -0400, Kurt Feltenberger <xxxxxx@thepaw.org>
wrote:

... before quoting and commenting, let me exhort Kurt to WRITE THE
ADVENTURE - Freelance Traveller can always use more...

>(Author's note:  I hope this doesn't get political because that isn't
>the intent.  I'm simply using the examples in a "what if" manner.)

>Two recent legislative initiatives regarding abortion were recently
>signed into law in the US states of Georgia and Alabama, severely
>restricting the procedure to a very narrow set of circumstances. This,
>along with some testimony in the House of Representatives regarding drug
>prices, started me thinking about medical tourism in the 3I.

I am given to understand that a similar piece of legislation was signed
into law today in Missouri.

>Currently, it is common to travel to another country that offers medical
>procedures that either aren't approved, prohibited, or can't be done due
>to skills/technology limits or to obtain medicine that is likewise
>unavailable in the home country.  Given that a planetary government's
>authority extends to the 100 (or is it just 10?) diameter limit, would
>people travel from a planet that (for sake of discussion, I'm
>simplifying all the reasons into...) doesn't offer the drug/procedure to
>either a ship or station outside the territorial limits, or perhaps even
>to another world (either in the same system, but more likely to another
>system) for the desired drug/procedure?

An interesting question to append to this in a Traveller context is whether
the planetary legislation is written "long arm" style - that is, if a
citizen/subject/resident/etc. of the planet that bans e.g., Genetic
Twiddling of gametes and zygotes goes outside the jurisdiction of that
planet, has his gametes twiddled, and returns, does the planet hold that he
has violated planetary law, and prosecute?

>I could see a company like SuSAG, Sharushid, or even Tukera (but
>especially SuSAG) operating large hospital ships or barges (essentially
>something like a converted battle rider) outside the territorial limits
>in systems where such things are more highly regulated and yet still
>highly desired.

>How would the local government react?

Pretty much anything that you see in international relations when Country A
does or permits something that Country B is Really Unhappy About And
Impinges On Country B's Direct Interests. Where there is no legitimate
Direct Interest on Country B's part, Country B will generally Keep Their
Mouth Shut, Grumpily. Unless Country A is a client/dependent of Country B,
in which case Country B will Exert Pressure on Country A.

>How would the system, subsector, or even sector nobles react?

As the nobles are responsible to the Imperium rather than the world, and
this is a matter of world (local) jurisdiction, not Imperial, the Imperial
nobility would have nothing to say about it.

>Would their be any Imperial doctrine to handle cases like this?

Yes. "Hands off. It's not a regulatable matter of interstellar trade."

>I think it could be commercially viable, though in most cases it would
>probably have to be a "cash or verified credit" transaction since if the
>procedure/drug is outlawed where the citizen is from, I doubt that it
>would cover such things.
>
>Scenario Ideas:
>1.  Travellers are hired to run a shuttle service as a sort of
>"underground railroad" from the planet to a station/ship orbiting a gas
>giant in the system posing as an extended "sight seeing" excursion.
>2.  As 1, but they're hired to do vacations on a world located in a
>foreign system.
>3.  As in 1 or 2, but their patron expects complete documentation on who
>is transported and what is procured for..."future purposes".
>4.  Similar to 1 or 2, but the patron charters the Travellers and their
>ship to transport his extremely ill spouse or child to a medical "free
>zone" for life saving surgery that is prohibited on their home world.
>5.  As 4, but there are agents of a rival faction to the patron that
>wish the spouse or child to die so that they can usurp the
>power/authority the deceased held.
>6.  As 1 or 2, but the Travellers are only hired for the outbound part
>of the trip while another charter will return the patients to the
>homeworld.  The Travellers are approached by the younger sister of a man
>they took to the "hospital" six weeks ago for a routine procedure that
>was non-invasive and should have taken several hours at most.  He has
>yet to return and the sister is worried that the rumors of an organ
>harvesting or slavery ring are true and that her brother was a victim...

Develop this out a bit more!

®Traveller is a registered trademark of
Far Future Enterprises, 1977-2018. Use of
the trademark in this notice and in the
referenced materials is not intended to
infringe or devalue the trademark.

--
Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
Freelance Traveller
    The Electronic Fan-Supported Traveller® Resource
xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com
http://www.freelancetraveller.com

Freelance Traveller extends its thanks to the following
enterprises for hosting services:

onCloud/CyberWeb Enterprises (http://www.oncloud.io)
The Traveller Downport (http://www.downport.com)