Double jeopardy and the use of QALYs in health care allocation

Article Abstract:

The use of Quality Adjusted Life-Years (QALY) to allocate health care has been criticised as rationing that penalizes disabled or permanently ill persons. QALY places permanently handicapped people lower on the scale than the physically normal ones. Depending on the medical situation, the QALY puts more value on the treatment for a handicapped person over a normal person since the benefits of treatment for the handicapped person may be greater when the cost is the same. When the benefit from the treatment is the same for both, the normal person is given priority on the QALY scale.

Health aspects

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Straw men with broken legs: a response to Per Sundstrom

Article Abstract:

The advocacy of eugenics and euthanasia under the circumstances of severely disabled newborns or genetic counseling to prevent the conception of disabled newborns was misunderstood by Per Sundstrom and some Germans who opinioned that a person has no right to value one life higher than the other. However this controversy has been removed by indicating that the ethical issue of eugenics and euthanasia depends upon the condition of the patient.

Criticism and interpretation, Eugenics, Euthenics, Sundstrom, Per

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Double jeopardy and the veil of ignorance - a reply

Article Abstract:

The Quality Adjusted Life-Year (QALY) scale, and other similar methods that link quality of life to life expectancy, use it for determining specific allocations of health care finances. Although the defenders of QALY claim the equality of all beings, they implicitly attach different values to all lives. QALY also needs a large and comprehensive data collection. Problems related to such large data collections are highlighted.

Analysis, Usage, Social values

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