Those questions usually lead to the liberal mantra "If it only saves one life, isn't it worth doing?"
The counter to that was addressed very effectively by Thomas Sowell in one of his books. Basically, it is based on economics. Takes emotion out of the equation.
(my paraphrase) "If the resources it would take to save one life were applied elsewhere, how many more lives might be saved?"
Serious policy decisions have to take costs vs. benefits into consideration.
