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A comment on Value of life. Parent comment

Re:Value of life by Chris2048 on Monday January 08, 2024 @08:49AM (#38911850)
These kind of talks always came up in philosophy class and I always made the same point - there isn't saving a life, we are all dying/will die, singularity permitting. Dying just means dying sooner, lifetime QoL should be the only metric for us mortals.

It's just the calculus suffers from the same existential problem as abortion morality - how do you weight a lived life vs non-existence?

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Re:Value of life by gmac on Monday January 08, 2024 @11:24AM (#38914301)
QALYs are generally how this done, and don't need to be limited to medicine: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/...

They won't help you with non-existence though.

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Re:Value of life by Chris2048 on Monday January 08, 2024 @05:21PM (#38919105)
Yeah, the calculus needs to be more complex:

* not clear 2 * 50% QALY == 1 * 100% QALY

* maybe factor in "non-existence" with expected life expectancy?

* need negative QALY to factor in pain, dissatisfaction

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