Paper's abstract

Anne Fagot-Largeault, Thoughts on the notion of Health-Related Quality of Life
The notion of "quality of life" is in the air. The following thoughts consider it from a medical stand-point ("health-related quality of life": H. Q. L.). For example, when treating chronic illnesses, it is not enough anymore to prove that a new curing process is efficient and deprived of toxicity. It has to be proven that with an efficiency and a toxicity comparable to that of the standard cure, the new treatment offers the patients a better quality of life. Not everyone likes this type of calculation. To schematise, loathing arguments from the quantity-quality of life type infers preferring moral theories of deontological inspiration (moral standards of duty) whereas using this type of arguments infers a preference for theories of utilitarian inspiration (moral standards of good or of happiness). If, in practice, each side ends very near the solution of the other side, it remains however that these are two different ways to confront difficult alternatives in one's mind.

Key Words : quality of life, health, science
t. 36, 1991 : p. 135-153

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