Battison's Blog

It’s difficult to choose between 2 projects if one saves lives and the other does not. Can/should you quantify such things? Can/should a value be placed on life? And if so can/should further values be attributed to preventing injuries?

And if you want to take it even further still then imagine this scenario: you’re forced to choose only 5 countries that will survive a terrible apocalypse. Would you place equal value on each life and choose the most populous countries? Or would you reason otherwise? Might you for example reason that if you’re thinking about the living then it’s best to save the 5 happiest countries, so that the future is a better world? Would love to hear your thoughts.