How much is your life worth?

Can you put a dollar value to it? Some have already:

Studies of real-world situations produce relatively consistent results, suggesting that average Americans value a year of life at $100,000 to $300,000, said Peter J. Neumann, director of a program at Tufts-New England Medical Center that measures the cost-effectiveness of new treatments.

Kidney dialysis treatment provides another data point to suggest that estimate is fair. Keeping a patient with kidney failure alive on dialysis costs about $70,000 per year, according to a federally financed survey of dialysis clinics. But no one has suggested that dialysis is too expensive or that it should be limited.

So a year of life is worth at least $100,000.

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