The QALY argument: a physician's and a philosopher's view.

The arguments used by Gavin Mooney in his scornful response to Castigating QALYs, are examined. In spite of the rhetoric there is a broad measure of agreement about the deficiencies of QALYs as a means of distributing scarce resources. The main area of conflict is that John Rawles favours compaigning for more resources while Gavin Mooney, constrained by his remit as a health economist, favours acceptance of the present level of funding and better methods of distributing resources.