ABSTRACT
What is the value of life?1 This may seem a pretentious or a philosophical question. But it is the subject of much contemporary discussion. In August 2006, England’s National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), which advises on medicines available on the National Heath Service (NHS) in England, ruled against two treatments for late-stage bowel cancer – Genentech’s Avastin and ImClone Systems’ Erbitux. Although these treatments were widely available in a number of countries, NICE declared that their use was not ‘compatible with the best use of NHS resources.’2
