PEDIATRICS Vol. 75 No. 4 April 1985, pp. 798
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Neonatal Intensive Care: Cost-Benefit Analysis

DANIEL R. NEUSPIEL MD, MPH1

1 Division of Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, Rose F. Kennedy Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461

To the Editor.—

Walker et al1 have contributed to the recent plethora of studies applying cost-benefit analysis to the provision of health care. In using this dangerous method to determine the value of neonatal intensive care, they legitimize the acceptance of cost criteria for the rationing of health services. This approach reduces the measurement of human life to economic productivity and accepts the unproven contention of dwindling societal resources available for health care.

Walker et al divided their subjejcts according to their neurodevelopmental evaluation into four categories: normal, (midly imapired, moderately impaired, or severely handicapped).