Are differences in life expectancy something we ought to account for in equal opportunity policies? Although this is not often discussed in the literature, my intuition is that the answer is yes. Furthermore, it is not merely a hypothetical issue—advances in medical technologies have sharply mitigated the great leveller, but only for those who can pay.
The Plague of Justinian (541–542), the first known pandemic on record,1 the Black Death in the fourteenth century, and the 1918 influenza pandemic are all evidence of infectious disease that did not discriminate much between king and pauper.
Robinson, Azerrad, and Matthews have each argued that equality of opportunity would represent a “dystopian, totalitarian nightmare” and even that it is “impossible.”1
The underlying argument seems to be the following:
In the relevant population, there is diversity of body, character, parents, etc. at some time period, t. Difference between individuals A and B at time, t, means they do not have equality of opportunity for outcome Y at time, t+k (e.