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The Worth of a Human Life

durentu

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Can a human life be weighed objectively?

If you can get every single person on earth to look at one person and all of them agree to the same number on whatever objective scale, then it's possible.

ie: every single soul on Earth agrees that on a scale of 1-10 I'm a 5, then objectively I'm a 5.

I also hope deep inside that this can NEVER be accomplished, for me or for anyone, ever. If it becomes possible, then the humanity will be stripped from humans and hence forth will be called "a unit".
 

PeaceBaby

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Well, from a horrifyingly clinical viewpoint you could look at how much money can be made from the sale of body parts and organs ... that would set the value of a human life at around $200000.

Pretty cold, isn't it?
 

gromit

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What if that person made that much money in a single year? Technically they would be "worth" more than that...

UGH. I don't like this topic.
 

ObeyBunny

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Can a human life be weighed objectively?

Everything has a price, but sometimes, you need to think about the currency is.

For example: Would you let someone you love die? You say no.
Would you let someone you love die if it would save the lives of 2 other people you love? Would you let someone you love die if it would save the lives of 100 people you DON’T know?
 

durentu

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What if that person made that much money in a single year? Technically they would be "worth" more than that...

UGH. I don't like this topic.

What is valuable to one person is different from another. A billion dollars cannot give you a hug that you desperately need, when you need it, exactly how you need it.
 

disregard

mrs
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Every life is equal in value.

That is not to be read as "every fetus deserves a chance to be born" or "capital punishment is wrong".
 

PeaceBaby

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Elie Weisel: "How many Nobel Prize winners died at the age of 1? 2? And who's shoes are here? One of them could have discovered the remedy for cancer, for AIDS. The great poets, the great dreamers."

There is no measure for that.

This video is troubling (re the Holocaust) so please accept this as my disclaimer.

YouTube - Oprah & Elie Weisel at Auschwitz Part 5
 

Stanton Moore

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I like this quote:

''Stop trying to be better. You'll never be better. Same way you'll never be worse than anyone else.":yes:
 

Brendan

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If you can get every single person on earth to look at one person and all of them agree to the same number on whatever objective scale, then it's possible.
That's not objectivity, that's mass subjectivity.

Objective would be: 1 human life = 1 human life.
 

Brendan

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Every life is equal in value.
I heartily disagree. The life of the Buddha and the life of Bernie Madoff are far from equally valuable.

Yes, everyone is equal in the eyes of the Lord, if you'd like to put it that way. Actions are not, and actions define a man's worth, not his species.
 

Lark

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Some people think its not worth anythng, others that its worth everything, I personally think it all depends.

Are we talking Hills Have Eyes "humans" or the rest of the population?
 

disregard

mrs
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I heartily disagree. The life of the Buddha and the life of Bernie Madoff are far from equally valuable.

Yes, everyone is equal in the eyes of the Lord, if you'd like to put it that way. Actions are not, and actions define a man's worth, not his species.

The morality of a person's actions do not define his worth in the realm of objectivity.
 

disregard

mrs
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Every man is a piece of the puzzle we know as our world, which would be incomplete without him. How could one piece be less important than another? If a "bad" man is of lesser value, then our puzzle, our perception of the world, will be vastly distorted.
 
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