Saving lives or improving them?

Should we fund charities that save lives, or ones that make lives better? The answer depends on how bad you think death is for the person who dies, and on where you put the neutral pointThe life satisfaction score at which a life is neither good nor bad. Read more. Set your own views below and see how the Against Malaria Foundation compares with the charities we evaluate.

This is based on our work in The Elephant in the Bednet (Plant et al., 2022; see also Samuelsson et al., 2023, and Dupret & Plant, 2026, for research on the neutral point), which lays out why philosophy matters when comparing life-extending and life-improving interventions.

HLI does not hold any specific view.

Badness of death

Your view

How bad is death for the person who dies? DeprivationismDeath is bad because it takes away all the wellbeing the person would otherwise have had. Read more counts all the wellbeing they would have had, TRIAThe time-relative interest account: a death counts for less the younger the person, until the age at which they are fully connected to their future self. Read more counts less the younger they were, EpicureanismDeath is no loss to the person who dies; only the grief of those left behind counts. Read more counts death as no loss to them. Weighted mixture splits your credence across the three.

The life satisfaction score at which a life is neither good nor bad. The default is the average of the literature, weighted by sample size (Dupret & Plant, 2026).

AMF's figures

Of the population whose lives are extended, on a 0-10 scale.

In years.

Deaths averted per $1,000 donated.

WELLBYs lost by family and friends for each death.

WELLBYs per $1,000 AMF achieves by improving lives.

Charities compared

Our evaluations, in WELLBYs per $1,000. Change a figure to try your own, or untick a charity to drop it from the comparison.

AMF under your views46.85WELLBYs per $1,000 donated
Resting onDeprivationismNeutral point 2.58
Among those compared5th of 10Against 9 life-improving charities

AMF among the charities we evaluate

WELLBYs per $1,000 donated. AMF moves with your views; the others are our estimates. On the right, how AMF compares with each.

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