The value of a life.?

Question

War often brings into question how much a single life is worth. Who do you kill. Who you let live. What is more important, an American life, or the lives of one of our ememies? They are still people. Who do we think we are always more important? Why have we forgoten that they are human beings too? Why can we kill without blinking an eye. We leave thousands of military and civilains alike to die, but when one of our soldiers is killed we believe the enemy is evil and inhumain and cruel, and must be stoped, Even though the former exponentialy outnumbers the later? What judges the value of a life?

Answer 1

There is no absolute value beyond that which values each life equally. Aside from this, there are only relative values, and these relative values, of course, depend on one's perspective. The use of violence as a means to assert our values is a sign of our delusional nature. We tend to believe that our perspective is the ultimately correct one, and thus devalue all other perspectives. This devaluing of other perspectives always comes back to haunt us because all perspectives are interdependent –each perspective is what it is only in the context of all other perspectives. The energy we put into devaluing other perspectives ultimately, in one way or another, ends up devaluing our own. Our thoughts, feelings, and intentions ultimately guide our actions (consciously or unconsciously). Whenever I devalue others, the effects of my judgments ripple outward to the entire world, and eventually reflect back upon me. My own perspective becomes devalued from the perspectives of others, and a vicious feedback loop is established. The only way out of this vicious circle is to recognize the value in each perspective, and respect this value, even if we don't agree with the perspective as a whole. This doesn't mean that we have to give in to everyone else's whims and desires, but it does mean that we look for something positive in each perspective and acknowledge that our own perspective is not absolute or perfect. The respect we afford other perspectives, and the open-mindedness with which we approach our own, will eventually come back to us, and in this way a positive feedback cycle will be established.

Answer 2

This probably the not only one of the best questions I have seen on Yahoo Q&A, but one of the best questions I have ever heard! This is a fabulous question.

Every life is worth the same. A celebrity is worth the same as any other person. When we kill we are not thinking about that person. They have a life! A family. People love that person! We are not only killing one person, but their family and friends. They love that person. We are slowly killing them by pain. They may not blink an eye. They don't know. That person that they just shot, might have a daughter who is expecting her Mother of Father to come home that night. What happens when they don't come happen? I will tell you, the daughter will cry her heart out, and will starve to death and die. Or, before she can starve and die some soldier will come and raid her house and shoot her. She is the enemy! She must die! No, she is just a young girl!!! She never hurt anyone! Her life is very valuable. She is just as valuable as any American. The "enemy" is not evil. We are evil as well. We are invading towns with our guns. Most of the people shoot are children and parents who were just taking their children to school...or something so harmless. They never asked for it. These poor people are getting a burden of what some people of their race or national did. They didn't ask for this. THEY ARE INNOCENT! I don't understand how someone can just go out and kill them as if they are a potential threat. This is what is killing me. Pack up your guns and get OUT OF THERE! GET OUT! NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing judges the value of a life. Life is the most special thing. Who knows what happens after it. You might only live once. That life that you are killing is so special beyond what words can express.

Answer 3

Each being is sacred -- meaning that each has inherent value that cannot be ranked in a hierarchy or compared to the value of another being. Its a difficult situation to choose. The American and their enemies feel the same way about doing the right thing and they know the consequences by doing that. This is what i think, the world is a stage. We can only see and criticize but we can't do nothing more to help. These are the price they have to pay and Value of life they get for not being patience, tolerance and compromise.

Answer 4

Since you frame your question in the context of the US's wars of choice (by the way, the US's enemies are all manufactured by the US's machinery), let me say then that one realizes how much is life worth when he or she discovers what is worth dying for.
The context of your question gives a higher value to the suicide bomber in Iraq because this person is fighting for what he or she considers of great value: country, family, religion, salvation, dignity. However, the US soldier knows that he or she is waging a pointless war to protect the interests of Halliburton and friends.

Answer 5

Drastically skewed judgment, or misjudgment if you will. This nonsense is the same idea that drives our so-called enemy's to kill our loved ones with so little concern.

It is a form of socially accepted insanity that has been behind every war from the beginning of time.

There is a cure for it but society is not ready to accept it yet.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 6

Monetarily by American standards, legally on average about $100,000.00, that takes in account the chemicals inside a human and body parts. In wrongful death cases tried, that varies by settlement or punitive jury awards. A life can not be replaced as even from birth, each personality is unique. The rest, you have to find the answers to and protest.

Answer 7

ALL life is valuable and perhaps if ALL people thought that way we would not have war.

Unfortunately there are people who think that killing gets them closer to their God and there are people who think that war is the only way to resolve things. One is considered the enemy and the other a top politician. Both are wrong.

Is the life of one of them more valuable? To be honest - neither of them are worthy. Would I kill either of them? No because they will destroy themselves one way or another. It is a sad statement of human beings. Most other "lower" animals only kill for food or to protect their young. Only human beings kill to kill.

Answer 8

Monetary wise I suppose you could take the avg. salary of the countrymen, multiply it by the number of yrs. expected to work, factor in the life expectancy, etc... However if you're talking value as in a religious-type sense, I think the answer could be "priceless" or also "worthless" depending on the perspective. Both words accurately describe something/someone that can't be priced.

Answer 9

The value of a life is determined by the people affected by the loss. In all other ways, just like the tree falling in the uninhabited forest, it is without value.

Answer 10

Life is not life’s own value, this is what we have proved and seen being proved throughout human history of feuds, conflict and even peaceful living. There is something that we human beings value most; something that we regard above and beyond the matters of life and death. We have seen throughout the history that people of all kind willing to sacrifice their lives for the sack of what they believe to be good. All fighting may be bad but not all who fight, fight without some higher purpose.

With reason in my mind what I am going to say may not form a part of conventional wisdom or commonly held views, for apparently from a very human point of view that may be pointless, impractical and even nonsensical, but this is what I think. I think people fight for causes, and that causes are forms of their beliefs, nations, rights or value for their possessions, the actual purposes to fighting are far greater than any of these things we fight for. A nation, or a country for example, provides people opportunities to live peacefully in the times of peace, but in the times of war the very nation provides her with occasion to die in a most honourably. If one would not believe in anything, has love for nothing, and belong nowhere then that person would neither be able to live in greatness or die in greatness. We see thousands of people dying, and only who are close to the ones who die know in true sense what does that mean.

I can answer you question only partially as I understand why people fight, as the often do most purposefully. Thinking through this point of view leads to a carefree attitude towards all that is going on in this world today, but in my view this is the fact. People do no fight and die without a reason that is better than all they have in their lives. But people who do not want to fight, or are not involved in fighting, die too. And this is one aspect of your question as ‘military and civilians alike die’. What is the value of people whose death serve no purpose, they just get caught into conflicts and die some times in there hundreds of thousands. Like Rwandans genocide, Bosnian Muslim slaughter and the people who dies in both world wars. Yes, what for?