“the intuitively unacceptable implication that saving lives in richer countries would, other things being equal, be more valuable on the grounds that such people are richer and so better off.”
FWIW my intuition is that this implication is pretty obviously correct—would I rather live 1 year of life as a wealthy person in the United States, or as a poor person in Kenya? Obviously I’d prefer the former.
The difference in welfare is almost always swamped by the difference in ability to improve people’s lives, hence it’s better to help the worse-off person. But all else equal, it would be better to extend the life of the better-off person.
There are two questions to be distinguished here. (1) Does adding 1 year to the life of a wealthy person in the USA increase their well-being more than adding 1 year to the life of a poor person in Kenya would increase their well-being? (2) Does adding 1 year to the life of a wealthy person in the USA increase overall moral value more than adding 1 year to the life of a poor person in Kenya would? Your reply seems to be addressed to question (1), but the original discussion and my comment concern question (2). If the distribution of welfare makes a difference to overall moral value, then the answer to (2) might be ‘no’ even if the answer to (1) is ‘yes’.
FWIW my intuition is that this implication is pretty obviously correct—would I rather live 1 year of life as a wealthy person in the United States, or as a poor person in Kenya? Obviously I’d prefer the former.
The difference in welfare is almost always swamped by the difference in ability to improve people’s lives, hence it’s better to help the worse-off person. But all else equal, it would be better to extend the life of the better-off person.
There are two questions to be distinguished here. (1) Does adding 1 year to the life of a wealthy person in the USA increase their well-being more than adding 1 year to the life of a poor person in Kenya would increase their well-being? (2) Does adding 1 year to the life of a wealthy person in the USA increase overall moral value more than adding 1 year to the life of a poor person in Kenya would? Your reply seems to be addressed to question (1), but the original discussion and my comment concern question (2). If the distribution of welfare makes a difference to overall moral value, then the answer to (2) might be ‘no’ even if the answer to (1) is ‘yes’.