From "whether" to "how much"
We've already seen that death is a harm. Now the question is: how much harm does it cause? Is dying young worse than dying old? What goes into that calculation?
An example
Imagine someone who was just born and has two possible futures: living 10 years or living 80 years. Almost everyone would say dying at 10 is worse. But why? There are two explanations.
Looking at the future: someone who dies at 10 loses much more life still ahead of them.
Looking at the past: someone who dies at 10 had much less time to enjoy life.
In most cases, both explanations point the same way: someone who has lived less also had more left to live. Sometimes they come apart, and the author discusses how to combine them.
It's not just time: it's quality
Time isn't enough. What that time would be like also matters. Twenty years of happy life are worth more than twenty years of constant suffering.
A tool: QALYs
In public health there's a measure called a QALY.
With this measure, we can compare different deaths. Example: a broiler chicken is killed at about six weeks old, but could live for years. It loses almost all the life it would have had.
Why look at the past too
The text argues that the past matters as well. Someone who has already had a long, good life has lost less, in a way, than someone who has barely started living.
In short
- How bad death is depends on the length and quality of the life lost.
- How much someone has already lived also counts.
- QALYs help with this calculation.