I think that adopting your first resolution, in addition to the assumption by commenters that being a child with malaria is a net negative experience, can rescue some of the value of AMF. Say in situation 1, a family has a child, Afiya, who eventually gets malaria and dies, and thus has a net negative experience. Because of this, the family decides to have a second child, Brian, who does not get malaria and lives a full and healthy life. In situation 2, where AMF is taken to have a contribution, a family has just one child, Afiya, who is prevented from getting malaria and lives a full and healthy life. The family does not decide to have a second child. Only taking into account the utility of the people directly affected by malaria, and not the family, it seems to me that situation 1 is worse than situation 2 by an amount equivalent to Afiya’s net negative experience of getting malaria; the reverse of this could be said to be AMF’s contribution. So while this is not the same as 35 QALY’s, it still seems like a net positive.
EDIT: Note of clarification: The above is in particular a response to the statement, “Because AMF hardly changes humans’ lifespans, it does not have a clear beneficial effect for humans,” which was stated as a problem for Givewell with adopting the first resolution.
I think that adopting your first resolution, in addition to the assumption by commenters that being a child with malaria is a net negative experience, can rescue some of the value of AMF. Say in situation 1, a family has a child, Afiya, who eventually gets malaria and dies, and thus has a net negative experience. Because of this, the family decides to have a second child, Brian, who does not get malaria and lives a full and healthy life. In situation 2, where AMF is taken to have a contribution, a family has just one child, Afiya, who is prevented from getting malaria and lives a full and healthy life. The family does not decide to have a second child. Only taking into account the utility of the people directly affected by malaria, and not the family, it seems to me that situation 1 is worse than situation 2 by an amount equivalent to Afiya’s net negative experience of getting malaria; the reverse of this could be said to be AMF’s contribution. So while this is not the same as 35 QALY’s, it still seems like a net positive.
EDIT: Note of clarification: The above is in particular a response to the statement, “Because AMF hardly changes humans’ lifespans, it does not have a clear beneficial effect for humans,” which was stated as a problem for Givewell with adopting the first resolution.