OBJECTIVE: A common perspective of health economists involves the use of QALYs to prioritize activities, given equal costs. In this mode of thinking, an activity that took N people from a bad state to healthy for X years should have priority over an activity that took N other people from a bad state to a moderate state of health for X years. In addition to prioritizing based on expected outcome of the activity, QALY-thinking requires the prioritizing of treatment of the young over the old and the treatment of those with healthy lifestyles over those with unhealthy lifestyles (both based on longer expected life-spans). This study was designed to investigate whether this was the view shared by the general public of the United States. METHODS: This was done by surveying a cross-spectrum of subjects - including physicians, nurses, health administrators, as well as non-healthcare workers. The survey consisted of six cases in which the respondent was asked to prioritize two patients who had presented to the emergency department, both with life-threatening conditions requiring immediate intervention. RESULTS: While the number of subjects leaves room for interpretation, it would appear that independent of field of work, education level, age or sex, approximately 80 percent of study participants tended to emphasize equality in value of life and fairness in receiving treatment rather than expected quantity or quality of life-years after the treatment.