When teaching cost benefit analysis, I'm often faced with the uncomfortable situation of having to explain how we can possibly place a dollar figure on human life. I've been called callous, uncaring and arbitrary--and those are the kindest. But at least I'm not alone. Here's a story I came across this morning on the decisions doctors often face in deciding between extending cancer patients lives and the cost of treatment. Some highlights:
- Is the chance for several more months of life -- maybe a year or more with luck -- precious enough to spend a small fortune?
- Robert Graham, 73, of East Brandywine, Pennsylvania, just chuckled when he heard the high price -- up to $250,000 -- of heart pumps like the one implanted in him last November. It was covered by insurance. "I got to live a long time to be worth that!" he said. Yet the average patient in the best medical test so far lived less than nine more months.
But even some doctors worry that too many patients merely spend, suffer and die. Doctors, says University of Pennsylvania heart surgeon Dr. Michael Acker, should keep away from "high-tech, expensive technology just to postpone the inevitable."
And they call me callous.
