A question to Biologists about life's value?

Question

What is the value of life? I'm leaving it vague so that you can have your own thoughts expressed.

Answer 1

Biologists are not concerned with putting a value on processes or organisms. Neither spiritual nor monetary. So this is definitely not a biological question. Is it not a science question either because you intentionally left the interpretation of the word value vague.
Of course you know that it is impossible to put a generic value onto any living thing. What is the value of a species about to go extinct? Does it change it's value to you if it turns out that this species produces a substance which can cure 3 types of cancer reliably? If it changes your perception of value, then you know that you are dealing with an egozentric concept of value. Then you are asking what is the potential benefit/influence of an organism to my life. If you do this, then this logically also means that you put the value of the life of a stranger much lower than the value of a friend or family member. So you are unable to put a value on a human being in general, so what's the point of it anyway?
Or you can completely abandon an egozentric/anthropozentric viewpoint, then the life of each organism should be valued the same. Which means that you never ever should kill a mosquito, because it's life is as valuable than yours. You may object to that as well. But if you object, you put a higher value on the "me" than on everything else, and you should be aware of that.
And anyway the percieved value of a life is very subjective. There are enough people who commit suicide - certainly proof that they don't value their life, even though they can be very important to other people, like they were a good parent.
The short answer would be, this is a useless question.
What biology has to contribute would be in the field of social behavior and altruism and kin selection theory. Look those up if you are interested. But you are not going to find a one paragraph answer.

Answer 2

Priceless. That is why Scientists strive to find out answers instead of vague philosophising in order to make life even better.