Value of life

[Cryozombie]

MACAVER...

I wholeheartedly agree... I try very hard to see the same value in everyone as well... Just because person A has more money, or person B has more responsibility, and I have more, hmmm... IQ, say, than person D, that does not make any of us less valuable.

There are people I know who I genuinly dislilke, and I would still go out of my way to help them if they were really in need...

Wouldnt the world be great if everyone felt that way?

 

[MA-Caver]

MACAVER...
I wholeheartedly agree... I try very hard to see the same value in everyone as well... Just because person A has more money, or person B has more responsibility, and I have more, hmmm... IQ, say, than person D, that does not make any of us less valuable.
There are people I know who I genuinly dislilke, and I would still go out of my way to help them if they were really in need...
Wouldnt the world be great if everyone felt that way?

Yes Techno it would, but unfortunately it's not like that way. Human nature (*ahem* ) and other "influences" seek for the "self" and when that happens we become offended, disrespectful, uncaring, spiteful, hate and all other things which cause human misery. We do it to ourselves and to others.
It's taken me a very long time to realize this because I used to be one real mean, predjudiced, bitter, grudge-carrying S.O.B. and then I realize that all I was doing was hurting myself when I try to hurt others.
Now I follow

Michael "...the words of John and Paul"
Robert Pastorelli: "the apostles?"
Michael: "No, the Beatles!.... all you need is love."

 

[OULobo]

How much should life be valued? If you're talking purely physical, then that would remind me of this interesting number that someone or some people calculated of how much is a human body worth. I can't recall the exact study or number, but I think they figured out that the entire human body would be worth around $21 million. Maybe someone else knows more of this than I do.

Although it may sound blunt, cold, sterile and abrasive, people can be seen as valuble on many levels; such as material to be sold (organs, blood), labor force (ability to perform a valued service), as breedstock (ability to produce more people of value), for beauty (the body, mind or words as art for art's sake) and finally as a general investment or potential asset to all humanity (ability to perform acts of great importance in the future). As is the trouble of assigning value to anything, it's only worth what someone will pay for it with respect to time.

There are two interesting little annecdotes that relate well to this.

The first is that if you disected a healthy human body and sold off the parts in decreasing complexity (organs, then tissues, then left-over fulids, then ground bones) at mean black market or open market values the human body has a distinct material value, as organs fetch a high price and even bone meal can be sold. That value is close to the $21million that Ninway mentioned.

The second is that most major corporations have an equation that calculates the value of a single human life with respect to the most important thing to them, profit. The equation is designed to help decide whether to fix known problems with a product. In extreme cases this equation is used to find how much money it would cost to recall an item, verses how many people have the item, would likely get hurt or killed, would likely sue, what the average settlement or verdict payment would be and how much profit would be lost from decreased sales and bad press. Easy, see which side will cost you less and you have your decision made for you.

On the philisophical side, I have a distaste for killing any living animal (I even take spiders outside to save them from being squashed by my fiance or, if at my parents, my Mom) and some plants, but I think sometimes "a man's (or woman's) got to do what they got to do", usually for reasons of greater importance (which is a personal judgment call), like survival. Most of you have probly seen or read "Ole Yeller" or one of the thousand other movies or books that require the main character to make a hard decision about life and death.

As for the whole killing plants thing, while I try keep them alive especially for their beauty or edible produce, they are really only alive in a scientific context which we use by default. We kill things that are classified as "alive" everyday with medications, disinfectants, hell, just washing our hands in hot water.

I think the concept of life is sacred, not each individual life, and value (either material or ethical) is determined on an individual case.

 

[c2kenpo]

Wow, Missed a good thread here.

Value of Life,

This is a topic on too many levels requires an extremely lon pontification that right now I just dont have the time for but a quick 2 penies.

All life is valuble is some form in some way to someone or something. The Earth, Solar Systems, Universe, Cosmos are all incongruently co-dependent on one another, be this be grand design or an accident unknown.

There can be no determination of value of life it simply is and was put as such, the animal kingdom (exculding the human race) is simple the laws of nature and our understanding of science all come down to a harmony that is logical and chaotic all at once.

It is the view or perception that determins VALUE in something.
My look on life is valuble, I will and have risked my own numerous times to save another (human or pet) from fires or drowning and will do so again without question or regard to my own safety. However I killed a spider that was crawling on my desk just simply because I did not like it nor did I want it there.Did I think that the spider was not VALUBLE therfore I could kill it?
No the spider is immensly valuble in nature and keeping a balance of things.

However I made a CHOICE, to destroy a life. But no real difference then if an animal decided to try to eat the spider and killed it but did not consume it becasue it didn't like the taste. I do not systematicly kill spiders outside of my home nor do I go hunting for them to kill them off. I placed the killing as one of nature and territory. Animals defend thier terriory and space just as fiercely as we humans do our young.

However.. the difference between humans and anyother speices on this earth that is an agressive speices is that even tho animals may fight over territories, food, or mates you do not see them systematicly killing each other in massive quantaties nor do they kill because of looks, or beliefs or values.

We do.
Hitler, Hussien, Ceaser, Kahn, and many others.....
Part of the human genome.

So to quickly answer two points brought up here.

1. Life is valuble ALL OF IT. I need the plants to breathe they need me to die and decompose as to nourish them. Circle of Life. Simple.

2. Is some life NOT valuble? YES! Hitler, Hussien, Manson, Khan, Robert Lee Yates, Jack The Ripper, John Wayne Gacy.....the list goes on. A rabid dog, a sickly lion, these lives I find ...NOT VALUBLE as they are not contributing to the cycle nor the the norm of the laws of nature. These are examples of a disease in the cycle of life.

2a. See Number 1 - Dues to the laws of the universe those that fall under category number 2...still prove to be of some value.


:asian:

David Gunzburg

 

[Flatlander]

2. Is some life NOT valuble? YES! Hitler, Hussien, Manson, Khan, Robert Lee Yates, Jack The Ripper, John Wayne Gacy.....the list goes on. A rabid dog, a sickly lion, these lives I find ...NOT VALUBLE as they are not contributing to the cycle nor the the norm of the laws of nature. These are examples of a disease in the cycle of life. 2a. See Number 1 - Dues to the laws of the universe those that fall under category number 2...still prove to be of some value. David Gunzburg

I find this to be very close to my belief. I'm rather impressed, as you are able to still see value where many would not.

The fact is that though these lives we destructive, our society was given an opportunity to learn about ourselves, and what kind of horrors we are capable of. The unfortunate part is that too few will reflect on this, and too many will draw encouragement from the percieved "successes" of these monsters.

But, should those lives have been taken? If necessary to prevent further atrocity? Yes. Absolutely.

But what about as a punishment for their crimes?

 

[Cryozombie]

2. Is some life NOT valuble? YES! Hitler, Hussien, Manson, Khan, Robert Lee Yates, Jack The Ripper, John Wayne Gacy.....the list goes on. A rabid dog, a sickly lion, these lives I find ...NOT VALUBLE as they are not contributing to the cycle nor the the norm of the laws of nature. These are examples of a disease in the cycle of life.

David Gunzburg

David...

The Sick and Weak among the Herds allow the Wolves, Lions, etc... to feed. Many of these predators could not eat if it was not for the sick and weak in nature. Maybe in an Urban Neigborhood a Rabid dog is bad, or a Sick Lion in a zoo... but they do have their place in the Cycle also.

 

[the_kicking_fiend]

Before we start getting into plants and microbes, etc, I think we need the clarify the position on humans. Killing a man is very different to killing an animal. Some would say that life never needs to be taken, but history will remember those as pacifists. On this 60th D-Day anniversary I think it's important to remember what exactly happened. Britain threw itself into a war, completely alone, against the huge army of the Axis. The hope for vicory was not even great but the reason was to stand up against an evil and not just lie down.

Is this an acceptable time to kill? Soldiers killing soldiers who never see each other's faces or the family of the man they just killed. The act of killing is always repulsive but the cause and the end were not. Does the ends justify a means? Of course in retrorespect it's easy to say it was worth engaging in such a war for freedom, but I think the world should never forget what a terrible cost it came at.