(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.

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?

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?
How would the system, subsector, or even sector nobles react?
Would their be any Imperial doctrine to handle cases like this?

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...

--
Kurt Feltenberger
xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me