Staying Alive provides a fresh perspective on the issues surrounding health, health care, and illness. In addition to the traditional approaches of health sciences and the sociology of health, this book unpacks the impact that human rights issues and political economy have on health. This provocative volume takes up these issues as they occur in Canada and the United States, while placing these analyses in an international context. No book to date has taken such an in-depth look at the construction of health care and illness internationally. With its emphasis on political economy and power distribution, and its global perspective, Staying Alive will become an essential text for those teaching the sociology of health in North America.