Funded by the European Research Council, this project explores how deaths should be evaluated by using insights from philosophy and epidemiology.
ETHME is a theoretical project that investigates the theoretical and normative grounding for measuring deaths and evaluating their disvalue in summary measures of population health, such as the disability-adjusted life year (DALY). The project seeks to develop an “ethics of mortality measurement” which involves deliberation on choices and rationales behind the scope, construction and applications of mortality measurements.
Objectives
The core objectives of ETHME are to:
(a) develop and refine the understanding of the nature of the harm of death,
(b) reconcile the evaluation of deaths in summary measures of population health with the most promising accounts of the harm of death, and
(c) develop a theoretical grounding for evaluating procreation in future individuals.