The point is that to most people risk does not equal expected numbers of death. It involves a lot of other things, things like equity and whether you can control the hazard, whether you understand it. And so partly the arguments about priorities derive from this difference between making judgments just on the basis of expected numbers of deaths versus considering all these other factors. These considerations suggest that the lay approach follows more closely the ethics of respect for persons than utilitarianism. According to this ethical perspective, it is wrong to deny the moral agency of individuals.
Moral agents are beings capable of formulating and pursuing purposes of their own.
We deny the moral agency of individuals when we deny their ability to formulate and pursue their own goals, or when we treat them in an inequitable fashion with respect to other moral agents . The standard of proof in tort law is the preponderance of evidence, meaning that there is more and better evidence in favor of the plaintiff than the defendant. The standard of proof that a given substance was the proximate cause of a harm is less stringent than that which would be demanded by a scientist, who might well call for 95 percent certainty.