This paper explores how medical practice ought to be conducted, in the face of scarcity, if our objective is to maximise the benefits of health. After explaining briefly what the cost-per-QALY criterion means, a series of ethical objections to it are considered one by one. The objectors fall...

The EuroQol measure of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has many purposes other than the calculation of QALYs, but it is upon that particular use that this paper concentrates. For that purpose a simple generic measure yielding a single index score for each health state is required. The...