Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Value of life as a person
What is the value of a life
What is the value of a life
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Placing monetary value on an individual’s life is measured not by the way an individual has lived, but rather the individual’s income; at least that is how society views life. Every individual values life from a different perspective. And while every human will find value in life, those values will not be the same as everybody else. Some people will value life as a privilege and believe life should be taken seriously while considering the consequences in every decision contemplated while others will live in the fast lane with an irresponsible mindset. Individuals also view life differently depending on the circumstances. However, no matter how an individual views life, it seems to be impossible to extract emotion out of any decision. Society, on the other hand, values life by placing a monetary value on a human life. Society also has no choice but to set emotion aside when setting that monetary value. The government will use that value to compensate a family who has just lost a love one. However, some families mistake the compensation for “replacing” the lost soul and become indignant. There are many alternatives when it comes to compensating the victim’s family. In most times, society always ends up placing a value on an individual based on his/her income. Furthermore, while society delivers compensation to families, society also believes in compensation for an individual’s pain and suffering. There are times society should place a monetary value on life, while having restrictions.
Many individuals have different aspects as to how life should be valued. Some individuals live life a day at a time while attempting to make the most as if their last breath was upcoming. In a Stanford Commencement in 2005, Apple CEO Steve Jobs quo...
... middle of paper ...
...y after an individual has passed. And while the “value” will often lead invalid intentions to families, it means no harm. However, society should not deliver reparations for non-economic losses. Value on human life is given to every individual, and certain aspects of one’s life contribute to that number. It is up to the person themselves to discover certain values that will lead to happiness and cause life to seem precious. Do not spend valuable time living life to somebody else’s expectations because in the end, society is going to ignore how you have lived and pursue life insurance immediately.
Works Cited
Ripley, Amanda. “What Is a Life Worth?” TIME 11 Feb. 2002. 22-27. Print.
Jobs, Steve. Commencement Address. Stanford University Commencement Weekend. Stanford, CA.
12 June 2005. Address. .
Often, a person is seen as the embodiment of the value of their action, thus a person can be seen as “good” or “bad,” and the consequences of justice that affect them are based on the general value of their general actions. The value given to actions is based on a soc...
Celebrating individuality, our age invites us to express our feelings and realize our goals. It promotes happiness, while seeking to accommodate traditional moral values. But the focus on personal existence only makes the realization of death's inevitability more threatening. Torn between an outmoded religious tradition and a secular world on the ascendency, o...
All things considered, we realize that we have to live for the moment and hope for the best in the future. Life is full of bittersweet moments and it can be as simple as birth to death, and what I mean by that is, when people die we remember all the good the person has done throughout his life. Although, his death is a bitter moment we then think to all of the good he has done in the world which would be considered the sweet, in
A great deal of people within a mass of different cultures contain talents and special abilities of all shapes and sizes. In many cases, the way people perform these specialized talents directly correlates with how they value their lives. Amanda Ripley, author of the article, “What is a Life Worth?”tackles the topic of defining whether a price or value can be placed on a person’s life. By using statistical data and anecdotal evidence from the attacks on 9/11, she touches on each side of the argument efficiently. Although she does mention that a value may be a necessity when granting compensation to loved ones of the victims of national disasters, I personally believe that this action is impossible. The value of each person’s individual talents and unique abilities forms an inability to place price tags on human life. These special gifts, although priceless as is, provide worth to extraneous areas of life as well. For example, my greatest talent in life is my ability to pitch a baseball. By pitching well, I contribute to winning many games for the teams I play on, and by winning games, my team brings joy to themselves and to the fans enjoying the game. Because a price tag cannot be placed on emotions, my ability to pitch, which brings joy or sadness to different people, is also impossible to be priced. Because the personal abilities of each and every person add to the productivity in a seemingly unending amount, it is improbable that a value can be placed on the life of a human
Therefore, it is by creating a balanced, truthful communication, supportive and caring environment through the fading of a human life that death becomes meaningful. Every death is memorable, whether it happened in a hospital, or at a home, or in the street of a suburban neighborhood, on a royal bed, on an airplane, having dinner, during patrolling, at a war zone, or perhaps at the moment of birth. Dying with dignity was and will be the right to being born in this
S. Kay Tommbs presentation “Living and Dying with Dignity,” focused on the worth and dignity of the those who are dying from an illness. It covered the importance of maintaining both worth and dignity in an inevitable ending, being death.
Famous political leaders, scientific researchers, and ordinary individuals, like you and I, will tell you that a person’s life should be lived out by doing what
In conclusion, humankind is blessed with life as God created it. One must reflect on their actions throughout life because one will be judged by God in the next life, one must see the importance of gasping liberation, and one must have a loving and open heart when helping the poor. Life should be lived to its fullest because once time is lost, it cannot be regained; life needs to be appreciated.
Human life is a precious gift to people, yet many people have different opinions on how life should be valued. Some people think that life is more of a curse, because their life is difficult, and they do not value it as much. In many famous articles and books, the vale of life is considered, such as Hamlet’s soliloquy. Hamlet did not think about life as valuable and contemplated suicide. Life is valuable, even if people do not think of it, and people should try and live it to the best of their ability.
All people have probably considered that immortality would be an extremely joyous experience. William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, tells of the quality of life and how man exerts it; this is in direct comparison with Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow, written by Kurt Vaunnegut. Where as he also writes of the quality of life with the implication of immortality by drinking the miracle drink, Anti-Geresone. The insignificance of man from Shakespeare along with the concept of living forever from Vaunegut, draws the question of why would someone not want to die if life was so worthless. Both authors question the quality of life and as a result they express their concern in their writing.
Morality in utilitarianism is based upon the principle of utility wherein a moral act would be one where the total utility in the world is increased. When choosing between lives in a utilitarian sense, it does not matter when a person makes the choice to bring in most happiness in the world by saving more lives as opposed to just one. Under the framework of utilitarianism, one must make moral decisions from the position of a bystander with no personal connect to the situation. In this sense, choosing between people’s lives becomes easier to choose.
“In everyday life, men and women make decisions that affect the life and death of existing people. They decide whether to join the army; whether to donate blood, a kidney, or bone marrow to a child; whether to give money to Save the Children instead of buying a new sweater; whether to decline a life-saving blood transfusion; whether to drive a small fort on walls that may protect passengers in a crash but often kills those in less substantial vehicles” (Borgmann 23).
Since childhood, we have been taught that the most precious thing in this world is life; therefore murder is the worst of all sins that one could commit. But when it comes to capital punishment, this moral, which has been taught to us since birth, becomes arbitrary. This is where we as humans have failed. Capital punishment is simply the taking of a human life sanctioned by the state. How is that any different from simply murdering someone? There is no reason for the death penalty to be an option, even in particularly heinous crimes, when the alternative of life in prison without parole is on the table.
...s that one must accept the possibility of one's own death before he can truly appreciate what he has on earth, as the sobering awareness that one day, it will all be out of reach, prompts the urge to appreciate and value what one can have only for a limited period of time, and to use every moment of that time doing something that one will not regret when the bird sings its last note.
Human life is full of meaning. As humans, we assign value to many things. However, what happens when we assign a specific value to a human life? This is the issue being presented in the article, “What is a Life Worth,” by Amanda Ripley. The government determines a monetary value to a human life, and it does not appeal to the masses.