The Effects of Prenatal Deaths on National Life Expectancy: Case Study U.S.A

It is a positive indicator that human life expectancies calculated from birth have been increasing. The current standards for counting life-years, however, assume social desirability and exclude all prenatal deaths. These assumptions mask low life-year deaths and obscure results of medical and environmental interventions, thus falsely indicating higher life expectancies. This case study investigates 1930 to 2016 using CDC and World Bank data for the U.S. It is evident, published U.S. life expectancies are greatly exaggerated and what would have been short-lived Americans are disproportionately labeled as socially-undesirable and ignored when counting life years, thus presenting an overly-optimistic view of U.S. health. A comprehensive global investigation is needed, and a refinement of life expectancy calculations should be introduced, which does not bias results by only counting life expectancy from the time of live birth.