This post is written as part of the Draft Amnesty Week; it's an idea I've been thinking about for a while. Most of the figures here are rough, “best-guess” estimates, so please suggest improvements!

Summary

• Most global health charities and evaluations focus on Lives Saved or DALYs (Disability-Adjusted Life Years), which generally only focus on post-birth outcomes
• However, according to (in my view) reasonable assumptions, birth is an arbitrary dividing line, and unborn children and potential lives also have moral worth
• I divide worldviews into a simplified "pro-life" person-affecting worldview (early life has moral worth, foetuses count as people) and a simplified "pronatalist" non-person-affecting worldview (the more humans, the better, regardless of whether they exist). I also consider an anti-natalist worldview briefly for comparison
• I focus on global health interventions, and find that:
  • If unborn lives are given moral weight, many mainstream interventions - malaria prevention [...]

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Outline:

(00:24 ) Summary

(01:44 ) Overview Table

(02:05 ) Intro

(03:07 ) Why research this?

(05:05 ) View A: Early life has moral worth; foetuses count as people

(06:19 ) Pregnancy Loss Numbers & Causes

(08:26 ) Hypertensive Disorders

(09:28 ) Maternal malnutrition and anaemia

(11:39 ) Infections (other than malaria)

(13:46 ) Malaria

(14:49 ) So, AMF?

(17:30 ) Abortion and explicitly pro-life charities

(19:46 ) View B: More people = better world; potential lives are intrinsically valuable

(21:20 ) STI screening and treatment (chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis)

(22:35 ) Schistosomiasis control

(23:59 ) Safe delivery and post-abortion care

(25:33 ) View C... What if youre anti-natalist?

(26:46 ) Conclusion

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First published:

October 18th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZukwCrrMFcZ8gencR/what-are-the-most-effective-global-health-charities-if-you

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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