> The Lockdown Code of Ethics: > 1. Human life has an unbounded value that places it above all other ethical concerns. Life is sacred. It cannot be part of

> The Lockdown Code of Ethics: > 1. Human life has an unbounded value that places it above all other ethical concerns. Life is sacred. It cannot be part of any cost-benefit transaction. The fact of living trumps quality of life, full stop. > 2. Not doing everything possible to extend life is unethical. Material and psychological setbacks can be overcome, death cannot. If we have the scientific tools to extend life, we should spare no effort to do to. > 3. Age should not factor into the life-saving calculus. We should labour as hard to save a ninety-year-old as a nine-year-old. A life is a life. The health-economic measure of QALY [quality-adjusted life years] is reductive and offensive. > 4. Individual health is a collective responsibility. This applies especially to transmissible diseases. Our collective duty to keep transmission in check overrides our freedom to manage personal risk. If someone catches a disease from us, we bear full responsibility. > 5. Human rights rank far behind public safety. Safety categorically trumps liberty, and a state of health emergency supersedes individual rights. ===== A pattern: Modern liberal societies do not understand the concept of 'area'. We are systematically prioritizing large visible individual benefit in a small chunk of the population vs. small individual costs spread over a large chunk of the population, even if the total benefit area is much smaller than the total cost area.