COMMENT

Wickedness or folly? The ethics of NICE’s decisions

K Claxton¹ and A J Culyer²

¹ Centre for Health Economics, University of York, Yorkshire, England
² Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, Canada

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
A J Culyer
Institute for Work & Health, 481 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1T4; aculyer{at}iwh.on.ca

A rebuttal is provided to each of the arguments adduced by John Harris, an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics, in two editorials in the journal in support of the view that National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s procedures and methods for making recommendations about healthcare procedures for use in the National Health Service in England and Wales are the product of "wickedness or folly or more likely both", "ethically illiterate as well as socially divisive", responsible for the "perversion of science as well as of morality" and are "contrary to basic morality and contrary to human rights".

Abbreviations: NHS, National Health Service; NICE, National Institute for Clinical Excellence; QALY, quality-adjusted life year

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