Will QALYs be target of Americans with Disabilities Act?

The rejection of Oregon's health care rationing plan on the basis that its quality-of-life criteria inherently devalued the life of persons with disabilities raises the fundamental question of whether any fair and practical rationing plan can be devised without reference, at least implicitly, to quality of life. The following articles describe Oregon's revised plan and recent work on quality-adjusted-life-years, or QALYs (pronounced QUAL-eez).