How do you think we, as a soceity, should value life? Is it right to assign dollar vlaues to a persons life? Do suffering and illness impact how we should value life?
2007-04-29 13:09:02 · 3 answers · asked by camel 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
The question as you have posed it is relative. We need to know who "we as a society" is. Not all societies have the same value for life. I'm going to answer this as a human who has conscious life.
Conscious life is of supreme value because without it a conscious individual is nothing. I don't think a dollar value should be assigned to life. An individual who is suffering or is terminally ill might tend to value life less than a healthy individual. Our very language reflects this in the word "invalid" which literally means "not valid or true" An ill person (including a mentally ill person who is suffering) is therefore not equal to a "true healthy individual". From this it is easy to assign a dollar value to health. Which we, in the USA, do because we have to (usually) pay someone to nurse us to health. Life therefor has assumed a dollar value in that society whose monetary system is based on dollars. That is not true in all societies of the world though. So the value of life is relative.
2007-04-29 13:46:06 · answer #1 · answered by Mad Mac 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Each life is unique and has value for it's own sake, without
human life there is no society.
A life cannot be valued in dollars and cents.
Suffering and illness is a fact of life it has nothing to do with
how we should value life.
2007-04-29 13:27:40 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
What!?Why? Are you trying to buy someones life?
2007-04-29 13:14:08 · answer #3 · answered by The Phat Whale 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋