Quality of life has been measured in many different ways for patients with
chronic medical conditions. What is unique about the approach used here is
that it uses suicide rates as a relatively objective measure of quality of
life within the population of dialysis patients. Using a Heckman selection
model, we estimate the relative suicide rates across patients undergoing bo
th hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Our empirical results show that pa
tients on hemodialysis have relatively lower suicide rates after controllin
g for other factors. Specifically, our results indicate that 141 fewer suic
ides will occur for every 1,000 patients shifted from peritoneal to hemodia
lysis. prior estimates of the higher costs of the latter modality yield an
estimated expenditure of $42,043 per suicide avoided. (JEL I18, L84, I31).