1. Can you think of any other ways of getting a more ‘rational’ evaluation of human life? Would the person’s age make any difference?

2. If you had to decide whether more money from a hospital’s budget were to be spent on hip replacements (which do not save lives, but do dramatically improve the quality of the patient’s life), or on heart transplants (which do save lives, but which are expensive), how would you set about making a rational decision?

3. If different values are used in different countries, does this have implications for policy makers? Does your answer change if different departments within a government use varying valuations?