To avoid the contentious debate of what an individual human life is truly worth, government agencies in Western nations use the “Value of a Statistical Life” (VSL) during cost-benefit analysis for proposed safety regulations. VSL is primarily based on occupational fatality studies and an individual’s willingness to pay to reduce their risk of fatality. 

The EPA (search ) explains the VSL as follows: “Suppose each person in a sample of 100,000 people were asked how much he or she would be willing to pay for a reduction in their individual risk of dying of 1 in 100,000, or 0.001%, over the next year. Since this reduction in risk would mean that we would expect one fewer death among the sample of 100,000 people over the next year on average, this is sometimes described as ‘one statistical life saved.’ Now suppose that the average response to this hypothetical question was $100.  Then the total dollar amount that the group would be willing to pay to save one statistical life in a year would be $100 per person X 100,000 people, or $10 million.”