Jim Westrich wrote:
>
> 2) disability adjusted life expectancy is a controversial way of evaluating
> people. WHO discounts for all physical and cognitive disabilities (there
> lives are only a "fraction" of a non-disabled life).
Reminds me of Jerry Lewis calling those disabled with MD half a person. Blacks were considered three fifths of a person. It is disparaging but it is also expedient. In the case of slavery, for instance, if blacks were not fully human they were more expendable. In the case of disablement, this WHO quality of life rating is a medical/health means, i.e., one more way to devalue those not so exploitable as a workforce. It has been used to justify sterilization, euthanasia (so-called mercy killing) and assisted suicide for those lives "not worth living."
Perhaps those countries which have high WHO ratings are more efficient at eliminating disabled persons from the population - getting them to comment suicide for instance. Japan, for one, is notoriously anti-disablement. I don't know that there is any research to base such a theory, I am just throwing that out as one ramification/outcome of devaluing a disabled person's life.
Marta