Value of a Human Life

Every day, thousands of people starve to death, die from easily treated diseases, and other sorts of atrocities worldwide.

The cost of saving these lives by giving medicine, feeding them, etc is a negligible amount compared to the cost of 'Western' living.

How much value do we place on a human life? Does it matter whether or not it is an American little girl, or a little boy from Angola?

Some will argue that all intelligent life is precious, if someone held a gun to a strangers head and demanded $5 for their life, would you pay it? What about $100? $1,000? $50,000?

How much do we actually value a human life at, does it matter how close we are to that person?

 

I personally would try to save anyone if it was in my will power, I don't care which race you are. A human is a human no matter race, wealth, or intelligence.
It's sad today that we would let someone die from them having the lack of money to pay for the treatment.

 

I don't usually respond to appeal to emotion fallacies but I just decided I would educate you a bit.

Even if we treated them today they will die tomorrow. If you want to save everyone start encouraging their governments to become more capitalistic.

This is a huge myth when you see those scamming companies claiming oh we can save these children for 5 dollars you can save one child. No you give him a meal for 5 dollars what about his next meal? People in third world countries need food sources not food. They have corrupt governments and it is impossible for them to succeed it is not my responsibility to save everyone. Often you see Corperations open sweat shops which improve their quality of life yet people close them down claiming they underpay their workers yet the workers are in better conditions.

Human life is sacred there is no value to a human life there should not be a price on a human life.

I would not give one penny I do not negotiate with terrorist nor do I expect them to release the child.

Went over this above



OMFG PEOPLE ARE STARVING

then OMFG COMPANIES UNDERPAY THEIR WORKERS.

The workers want to work at those companies so they can provide for their families so then we close the factories then the people starve and we blame greed. It is those who claim to be against greed who are the greediest they are against others having as much as them they believe they have the perfect amount and anyone owning a business is a criminal.

 

I agree with Recidivism, human life has no value.
In this life the only person you look after is yourself, and your loved ones, nobody else.
Every single human on this earth is somewhat selfish, and will do selfish acts to make sure >he/she< survives, when it comes down to the scraps, you fend for yourself and nobody else.

Why should I donate money to someone that I need? It's not my responsibility. Call me selfish or heartless but it's how I see it, you look after yourself before you look after somebody else. Not to mention 99% of those "donate $5 and save a child in africa" are a scam.

 

@Recidivism, don't mistake my OP for my opinion on the matter, it is objective(ish) for people to make both sides of the argument, I agree with most of what you said, so there is no need to 'educate' me.

This leads to the follow up question- Would you pay $5 to save someone's life for another day? Would you pay $35 to save their life for another week? etc...

An extreme example, forget the terrorism part. Let's pretend it is a treatment for a curable disease. The treatment costs $5, $100, $1000 etc. Where is the line drawn?

 

I think about this all the time and the honest truth is that this planet is messed up. We worry about so much little stuff compared to kids in Africa, India etc. Plus, the level of racism we give these people when they come to America (which is underpopulated compared to others, by the way) to try to find a new life. Honestly man, all i could say is to look at it from a different point of view. These kids were dealt a bad hand of guards and i believe they'll go to heaven where they'll never starve again.

This world is cruel.

Ps. no atheist or satanic comments. It is my belief and i am not trying to convert you to the right path so do not.

 

Everyone is free to spend their money as they chose fit. I do not think anyone should be forced into charity (that is not real charity) but I think it is good that many do.

 

The best thing we actually do as somebody said above is to get businesses involved with other countries. It allows that business a cheaper work force whilst at the same time it improves the quality of life of the new employees. The $5 a month will save a life is a load of crap, barely any of the money goes to the person.

 

Completely agreed.

 

I wasn't alluding to forcing people to support others, the thread is more directed to IF you had a choice, how much would you be willing to put on another's life, a stranger, if you could save them, even if they are not your responsibility.

Don't confuse my first post with the appeal to emotion commercials, where the pretty blonde celebrity holds a frail African baby with big eyes staring into the camera while the sad music plays in the background... I am not arguing for the 'send $5 to sponsor this child' bullshit, because you are just sending $5 so they can play that commercial again.

The example of the people starving or dying from curable diseases is to put the cost in perspective. The 'philisophical' point I was trying to make is apparently obscured by people relating my post to the 'feed the hungry' campaigns.

I mean to get the opinions of others on how much a stranger's life means to them.

 

depends how can u save kids dying in Africa, unless u go there?half the ppl who save em jus take ur money and do nuthin

 

I think I can put a value on life, the size of your contribution to society.

I would pay more to save an english educated doctor than I would a small child who would likely die as the result of something else in Africa anyway.

I don't agree with the provision of aid to Africa for the most part, they become dependant on it. Far better to have businesses invest in that country so that one day they can help themselves and actually increase the value of their lives. Maybe then I would value their life of that of an English doctor.

 

Finally. You mentioned the point I was hoping someone would pick up all along. I could have opened the first post by stating that some lives were worth more than others, but it would have seemed cold-hearted, and left no room for discussion.

I agree with levels, quality of life makes the absolute difference here. Not only in terms of Person 1 who will grow to be successful and contribute, Person 2 who will starve their entire life and spread aids. Imagine Person 2 being someone who will never be able to speak, feed himself, or walk.

 

The value of a human life is for the beholder to calculate, every circumstance and life is different. Would I give up my life for 100 people? Yes

 

Id be happy to pay to save someones life, as long as i didn't know anything very negative they had done eg: raping/pedophile/murdering innocent/ as long as i didnt know such a thing yes id be happy to pay my back pocket to save them

 

I cannot give a complete, nor a one-sided answer to this.

I don't put my life above another in Africa, but I don't think we should just try and "save everyone". Did everyone forget about how over-populated the world is?

 

Human life has no intrinsic value.

Any answer is an opinion.

 

Actually from what I've seen, rich people would always be like "omg please protect him/her!" but they're the only people who would back away from such a situation. And not to forget, the rich keeps being richer and the poor keeps being poorer.
This is our society now.

 

This is a myth from people who refuse to learn how economics work.

There is income mobility in united states its true the top 1% earns more today then the top 1% 10 years ago but you are missing the picture that is a snapshot of data between 2 years it does not take into account the people who were in top 1% 10 years ago are not in it today.

The poor are actually increasing in income faster then the rich


Everyone starts at the bottom but become richer over time (Immigrants & teenagers are rising in population faster then middle aged men with experience)