You have advanced kidney cancer. It will kill you, probably in the next year or two. A drug called Sutent slows the spread of the cancer and may give you an extra six months, but at a cost of $54,000. Is a few more months worth that much?I have a few questions for the Great Ethicist Singer:
Do you think kidney cancer will ever be cured?
If it is cured, will it be cured in a single step, or will there be many steps along the way?
If we count all the people who will be cured of kidney cancer in the future, let's say the next thousand years, and put that number at, I don't know, a billion, is it worth it to pay for "expensive" steps to reach that cure-rate?
What if Sutent is one of those "steps along the way"? How much is it worth to cure a billion people of kidney cancer in the next thousand years?
Do you care about people?
In your mind, outside of your family and your circle of friends, and the people you worship, does human life have any value to you at all?
beautiful statement
Thye fundamental question to ask Singer is who sets the limits on what can and cannot be spent and on what?