Chronically ill and disabled patients generally rate the value of their lives in a given health state more highly than do hypothetical patients imagining themselves to be in such states. Much of this difference may be due to actual patients' adaptation to their health states, a phenomenon that...

This paper discusses the moral relevance of accounting for various personal characteristics when prioritising between groups of patients. After a review of the results from empirical studies, we discuss the ethical reasons which might explain--and justify--the views expressed in these studies....

There are a number of perspectives that an individual could be asked to adopt in studies designed to elicit preferences for use in informing resource allocation decisions in health care. This paper develops a conceptual framework that clearly distinguishes between six different perspectives. It...