3 ms·

I don't think that "total number of years of human life lost" is a good general-purpose measure. Specialists could perhaps apply that measure to the deaths of o

by bloak 5y ago

I don't think that "total number of years of human life lost" is a good general-purpose measure. Specialists could perhaps apply that measure to the deaths of old people (people over retirement age?) but it would be crazy, in my opinion, to apply it to the death of a baby or a teenager. As the hypothetical trolley controller, how many 50-year-olds would you kill to save one 16-year-old? And would you kill the 16-year-old to save a one-week-old baby?

fullshark 5y ago
I thought regulatory bodies considered age when considering regulations and the value of statistical life. Hence why regulations regarding kids toys / child safety products are so much stronger than say a toy for adults. Quick google search doesn't confirm or refute this, merely that the average VSL in america is 10 million. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_of_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_of_life This does have this tidbit: "Historically, children were valued little monetarily, but changes in cultural norms have resulted in a substantial increase as evinced by trends in damage compensation from wrongful death lawsuits.[38]"
benlivengood 5y ago
> As the hypothetical trolley controller, how many 50-year-olds would you kill to save one 16-year-old? And would you kill the 16-year-old to save a one-week-old baby? Organ donation prioritization does this analysis all the time. They don't publish the exact rules they use for matching but the most important are urgency, compatibility, locality, and survival benefit. Survival benefit is almost literally expected quality life years (QALY) from an organ transplant. A 98-year old will not get an organ that could give a 50-year old another 20 years of life, but a 20-year old that can survive for another year will not get an organ that the 50-year old needs this week. Compatibility and locality are the biggest problems apart from basic availability (too few organ donors, too many patients needing transplants). Once we can print/grow organs the calculus will reduce to prioritization on urgency and then QALYs if supply is still constrained in some way.

by bloak 5y ago

fullshark 5y ago

I thought regulatory bodies considered age when considering regulations and the value of statistical life. Hence why regulations regarding kids toys / child safety products are so much stronger than say a toy for adults. Quick google search doesn't confirm or refute this, merely that the average VSL in america is 10 million. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_of_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_of_life This does have this tidbit: "Historically, children were valued little monetarily, but changes in cultural norms have resulted in a substantial increase as evinced by trends in damage compensation from wrongful death lawsuits.[38]"

benlivengood 5y ago

> As the hypothetical trolley controller, how many 50-year-olds would you kill to save one 16-year-old? And would you kill the 16-year-old to save a one-week-old baby? Organ donation prioritization does this analysis all the time. They don't publish the exact rules they use for matching but the most important are urgency, compatibility, locality, and survival benefit. Survival benefit is almost literally expected quality life years (QALY) from an organ transplant. A 98-year old will not get an organ that could give a 50-year old another 20 years of life, but a 20-year old that can survive for another year will not get an organ that the 50-year old needs this week. Compatibility and locality are the biggest problems apart from basic availability (too few organ donors, too many patients needing transplants). Once we can print/grow organs the calculus will reduce to prioritization on urgency and then QALYs if supply is still constrained in some way.