Valuing Foreign Lives

Abstract

Democratic governments are typically concerned with protecting the lives of their own citizens. But decisions made by domestic institutions often affect foreign as well as domestic lives. In such circumstances, domestic institutions must choose how many public resources to devote to protecting foreign lives. This Article argues that foreign valuations implicate distinctive psychosocial, philosophical, economic, and political challenges that deserve their own analyses; analyzes existing practices of foreign life valuation in US regulatory and nonregulatory contexts; and presents a theoretical framework for evaluating when and how to value foreign lives within domestic policymaking.