What deviltry is this ?

Answer:
Well, somebody has to make the tough calls. In the US, we spend an average of about $6000 per capita on health care, and that routinely balloons up to $300,000 for the last year of life in elderly, debilitated people, while programs that could mean better health for many more people go unfunded. The financial decisions often are a political process based on emotion, and QALY's are a tool to help make more rational decisions. NHS at least has a single framework in which to operate, and rationing of care has been in place from the very beginning. It's just a matter of deciding how to ration.

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yep that is scary.

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I commend to his attention Professor Steven Hawking, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University since 1979 and still, despite suffering from motor neurone disease, one of the most intelligent men on the planet. What about his (inimical) effect on the quality of life of everyone around him and everyone who has read his books?

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