The concept of measuring a patient's quality of life (QoL) has obvious attractions to clinicians. It seems to be an objective, scientific, and quantitative tool to assist in deciding complex clinical and ethical dilemmas in daily practice. Its use has been promoted in many areas of medicine-from prenatal screening to do-not-resuscitate (DNR) decisions at the end of life. In this brief article I shall try to sound a health warning. I shall argue that the concept of measuring QoL is fatally

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... , and that, in its current form, it represents a misleading and potentially dangerous avenue for clinical ethics in the context of contemporary social and political pressures.