The claim is questioned that QALYs (quality adjusted life years) provide an effective measure of beneficial health care and of cost-effective and or efficient health care and allow for a morally defensible way of distributing scarce health resources. It is argued the QALYs: (1) fallaciously value time lived instead of individual lives; (2) take an excessively narrow view of what quality of life might be; and finally and perhaps most importantly (3) they are unjust.