Ethics and responsibility · Ethics
Should numbers decide questions about health and life?
Health services must decide which treatments to fund, and they often use calculations of cost and benefit. This question asks whether turning lives into numbers makes such decisions fairer or hides moral choices behind mathematics.
Claims
- When resources are limited, a transparent calculation treats everyone by the same rule and makes decisions open to challenge.
- Without numbers, decisions depend on who shouts loudest, which is less fair.
Counterclaims
- Any formula embeds value judgements, such as how much a year of life in poor health is worth, which mathematics cannot justify.
- A precise number can make an uncertain, moral decision look objective and settled.
Real-life situations from mathematics
QALYs in the UK
The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) uses quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) to compare treatments, and has generally treated a cost of about £20,000 to £30,000 per QALY as a guide to value for money.
Triage during the pandemic
During 2020 some hospitals drew up scoring systems to decide which patients would receive intensive care if beds ran out, prompting public debate about fairness to older and disabled people.
Check dates and figures in a reliable source before you use them, and cite that source.
Use this in your TOK work
Essay. Fits titles about ethics, objectivity and the human sciences.
Exhibition. A medicine leaflet with dosage tables, or a health service leaflet, is an object that connects numbers and lives.
Link it to the prescribed title or the exhibition prompt you are working on, in your own words. See using maths examples in your essay and choosing exhibition objects.
Themes and study heading
Knowledge and politics Ethics
Responsibility in making and using mathematics.