Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. 5th ed.

Linda Cocchiarella and Gunnar B.J. Andersson, editors. Chicago: American Medical Association; 2001. 350 pages. $139.00. The American Medical Association has assumed the nearly impossible mission of attempting to set standards for the quantification of loss of human body parts and their functions. The fifth edition of Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment is the latest attempt to refine that effort. Almost every body part is invaluable to the individual. Assigning a value to any body part is arbitrary, but assigning a value to a body part in relation to the whole body makes the process more reasonable. Even then, the assessment can be controversial. Quantification of loss is a necessary function in our society, in which individuals are compensated with cash payments for permanent impairments and disabilities. …