I find it odd that I have never read a libertarian analysis of lifeboat situations that utilizes the legal concept of creation of peril.  For example, chapter twenty of Murray N. Rothbard's The Ethics of Liberty evaluates lifeboat situations from every conceivable point of view, except creation of peril.  Let us briefly explore, then, this scenario.

The creation of peril issue only arises in the lifeboat situation if there is an owner of the lifeboat.  If the lifeboat owner allows others to board, then the owner voluntarily acts to assume responsibility for the safety of these fortunate guests.  Therefore, if she determines that discarding one or more of her guests maximizes the chance of survival for the remainder of the lifeboat passengers, it does not matter, for if the owner ejects one or more guests in this situation, the owner has engaged in an act of aggression (specifically murder).  Why is this an act of aggression?  This is an act of aggression because the lifeboat owner knows that ejecting a passenger, who she has voluntarily assumed responsibility for the safety of, into the ocean clearly places the passenger in a perilous/dangerous/emergency situation (in fact near-certain death).  Interestingly, this means the owner has an incentive to only permit a reasonable number of people to board the lifeboat in the first place. 

Unowned lifeboats are a separate issue evaluated thoroughly, per usual, by Rothbard. 

The most-cited study analyzing the economics of healthcare is Kenneth J. Arrow's article entitled "Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care".  This paper was published in the December 1963 edition of The American Economic Review.  Unfortunately, Professor Arrow's conclusion that "the laissez-faire solution for medicine is intolerable" is fundamentally wrong.

In this paper Professor Arrow defines the methodological background he uses, differentiates the medical-care market from the usual commodity markets, and compares the behavior of the medical-care market to the competitive model which disregards the fact of uncertainty and the ideal competitive market which takes account of uncertainty.  The article is incredibly technical and dense.  Basically, the author claims that the medical-care market is a "special" market that the State must regulate extensively to produce "optimal" outcomes for society.

The LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger, obviously, disagrees with Professor Arrow's conclusions.  As a non-economist, however, I shall not attempt to delve into the intricacies of the argument.  Instead, I refer the reader to any of the standard libertarian websites, where one can easily find many articles refuting Arrow.

Occasionally Slate takes a break from mocking non-aggression to publish an article that exposes the true nature of the State.  "The Chemist's War", authored by Deborah Blum and published on February 19 2010 at the Slate website, is such an article.  This article informs the reader that the American State poisoned the industrial alcohol supply during Prohibition, which ultimately led to the deaths of approximately 10,000 human beings.

A quick summary of the murderous tale is as follows: Annoyed that people were ignoring the 18th Amendment (which banned the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol) during Prohibition, the American State ordered the manufacturers of industrial alcohol - commonly stolen by private criminal organizations and redistilled into drinkable alcohol - to alter the "denaturing" process of their products; the standard "denaturing" process consisted of adding chemicals to industrial alcohol to render it undrinkable; the new American State Prohibition "denaturing" formulas contained multiple poisons, particularly methyl alcohol; bootleggers and consumers of bootleg alcohol were not informed of the change and did not suddenly stop their "illegal" actions; subsequently approximately 10,000 people (disproportionately poor) died due to acute alcohol poisoning.

Please read the original article to obtain the details of this crime.  Dear gods I hate the State.  Thanks again to Slate for publishing an important article describing murders committed by the American State.