Cost/benefit approach to disabled lives is offensive
Advocacy for Inclusion has spoken out following comments from Professor Peter Collignon AM, the Director of the Infectious Diseases Unit and Microbiology at The Canberra Hospital and Professor of microbiology at the Australian National University on ABC Radio Canberra this morning.
On ABC Canberra this morning Professor Collignon, speaking about the considerations that should be considered if there was another pandemic in 5 or 10 years’ time, said:
“If we do get [another pandemic] happening in 5 or 10 years time at least we’ve costed and looked at a cost benefit. What is a life worth? Well interestingly in health economics if you’re doing an intervention or even a vaccine a life is probably worth $50,000 per good quality life year so when people say you can’t put a price on life in fact health always does when they’re making decisions about allocating billions of dollars and we need to look at that. If you’re going to actually put in severe restrictions and its going to cost you billions of dollars in your economy you’ve got to look at how many lives are you really going to save from that and what is the age of those lives. Saving a 15 year old is different to saving an 85 year old. If you’re 85 you have a different attitude but you’ve got to be a bit hard nosed about this in how you allocate resources in society and how you interfere in people’s livelihoods as well as trying to make their health as well as you can with the resources you have” (ABC Radio Canberra from 3:21:19
According to AFI Head of Policy Craig Wallace “the idea that you can put a dollar value on people’s lives, calculate lower values for some of us and then shape public policy around this in planning for an emergency is extremely troubling.
“This kind of commentary is inconsistent with human rights and instead has some dark and disturbing echoes of old and discredited ideas like social Darwinism and eugenics.
“Modern societies are judged by how they treat the most vulnerable. As we reflect on the last few years, we need to put away the calculators, selfishness and ideology and instead focus on public health, collective responsibility and human decency.
“All Canberran’s whether they 15 or 50 should be able to expect to be treated without discrimination by our health system and to be prioritised during a public health emergency like COVID.
““Applying a cost benefit approach to healthcare based on personal characteristics like age or disability is totally out of step with human rights including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disability.
“Putting a value on vulnerable people is not ‘hard nosed’ – it’s just wrong.
“The value of life and good health is intrinsic and people of any age are certainly worth more than the cost of a $50K mid range 4 door dual cab ute.
“In April 2020 internationally recognised independent experts in the area of human rights, bioethics and disability came together in a statement of concern to emphasise key human rights principles and standards that need to underpin ethical decision-making in the context of disability and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This made it clear that people with disability had an inherent right to life, equal access to healthcare and treatment in situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies. These remain relevant.
‘We are calling on the Canberra Hospital and the Australian National University to confirm their commitments to human rights and opposition to age and disability discrimination and to clarify whether these comments reflect the positions of the hospital including in their attitudes to patients receiving care”, Mr Wallace concluded.
AFI have also broadly welcomed the release of the Report of the Inquiry into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic yesterday which included a focus on the response during lockdowns and the vaccine rollout.
However AFI said the report gave insufficient attention to the ongoing impact of COVID in the disability community including the need for continued support, actions and protections covering issues like clean air in health settings, rights to work and study from home and the need for support for people who continue to shield due to the risks faced by themselves and their families.
Media Contacts
Craig Wallace, Head of Policy on 0477 200 755 or Nicolas Lawler, Chief Executive Officer on 0439 431 814