It's all well and good to not like the choice, but the choices still have to be made - how much are we willing to give up economically in order to reduce immediate risk to lives? Included in this must be the consideration that economic value can be used to save lives, through higher living standards and better health care.

Every regulatory system in the world has to consider these things, explicitly or (more commonly) implicitly. See e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1633324/ for the application of the idea to healthcare, or http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/business/economy/17regulat... for the public policy implications for environmental regulation.

Or more relevant yet, this "guidance on valuing reduction of fatalities and injuries by regulations or investments" by the Department of Transportation: https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/VSL_...