UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

LEWIS RHINEHART and DAVID L. RHINEHART, Joint ┐ Personal Representatives for the Estate of Kenneth A. │ Rhinehart, │ Plaintiffs-Appellants, │ │ > No. 17-2166 v. │ │ │ DEBRA L. SCUTT, Warden, │ Defendant, │ │ ADAM EDELMAN, M.D.; VERNON STEVENSON, M.D., │ │ Defendants-Appellees. │ ┘

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Detroit. No. 2:11-cv-11254—Stephen J. Murphy, III, District Judge.

Argued: May 4, 2018

Decided and Filed: June 28, 2018

Before: MOORE, THAPAR, and BUSH, Circuit Judges. _________________

COUNSEL ARGUED: Paul J. Zalewski, THE ZALEWSKI LAW FIRM, Warren, Michigan, for Appellant. Kevin A. McQuillan, CHAPMAN LAW GROUP, Troy, Michigan, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Paul J. Zalewski, THE ZALEWSKI LAW FIRM, Warren, Michigan, for Appellant. Kevin A. McQuillan, Ronald W. Chapman, Carly Van Thomme, CHAPMAN LAW GROUP, Troy, Michigan, for Appellees.

BUSH, J., delivered the opinion of the court in which THAPAR, J., joined, and MOORE, J., joined in part. MOORE, J. (pp. 41–55), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part. No. 17-2166 Rhinehart, et al. v. Scutt, et al. Page 2

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OPINION _________________

JOHN K. BUSH, Circuit Judge. The Eighth Amendment bars the “inflict[ion]” of “cruel and unusual punishments.” U.S. Const. amend. VIII. This case addresses how that constitutional provision applies to the medical treatment rendered by two prison doctors to an inmate who suffered from end-stage liver disease (“ESLD”).

Kenneth Rhinehart (“Rhinehart”), then a prisoner, filed this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that medical providers associated with the Michigan Department of Corrections (“MDOC”) denied him necessary treatment for his ESLD. When he died, his brothers, Lewis and David Rhinehart (the “Rhineharts”), filed an amended complaint on behalf of his estate. After defendants filed motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment, only the Rhineharts’ Eighth Amendment claims against Dr. Adam Edelman and Dr. Vernon Stevenson (the “Defendant Doctors”) remained. The district court granted summary judgment to the Defendant Doctors, and the Rhineharts appealed. For the reasons below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

I.

In the summer of 2009, Rhinehart was an inmate at Alger Maximum Correctional Facility (“Alger”) in Munising, Michigan. He was 58 years old but in poor health. He had been suffering from many medical conditions, including liver disease, and for the past four years, he had been experiencing general malaise, weight loss, and poor appetite.