The People’s Value Our Life

The Value of Life

What is the value of a human life? This value has been debated for a long time. However, most people’s values vary depending on the impact that person had on someone. Each human life has a different value, depending on whom you’re talking to; therefore, it is unethical and detrimental to attempt to place a monetary value on a human life.

Trying to give somebody’s life a dollar value may cause someone else to feel worthless. By not agreeing with someone else’s value of someone, you may cause him or her to question how much you value him or her. In Hamlet’s Soliloquy, written by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is reflecting on his father’s death and how easily it was forgotten, causing him to question the value of his own life and death. Hamlet believes that his life holds just as much value as apparently, his father’s, because nobody but himself seems to be mourning. Hamlet says, “The pangs of despised love, the laws delay, the insolence of office, and the spurns…” (17-18). Meaning, people did not love my father, the law is delayed and the officials will do nothing and evil has taken over now. It offends people when you devalue the life (or death) of someone they care about. You should be careful about how you act upon the life or death of someone because other people will see your actions. By trying to replace someone’s life with money, someone may question how you determined those values and begin to compare and degrade their own value. In Amanda Ripley’s New York Times article she states, “The concept of assigning a price tag to a life has always made people squeamish… and what of the disparities? Is a poor man’s life worth less than a rich man’s?” People don’t recognize the government doesn’t know us all personally, we’re just a number in the system. “Some view the money as a halfhearted apology for the breakdown in security and intelligence that made the attacks possible… There’s a fundamental clash between the way they interpret the purpose of the fund and the way the government sees it.” Some people see a noble intent of compensation funds, while others see it as a non-caring action where the government is trying to replace people.

What are the grounds that people determine your life value on? People look at your contribution to society as your worth. With the “Life Calculator” online, you can take a quick survey to determine the different values your life can have. People use your education and work status to determine your life value. Depending on whether or not you have a successful lifestyle could increase or decrease your value. Your marital and family status can influence your worth. Your life value varies, as you grow older depending on how much you’ve contributed to society. Those who don’t know you are more likely to put a lower value on your life. During the post-9/11 tragedy, Kenneth Feinberg gave compensation to the victims of loss. He says “he chose $250,000 figure because that’s how much beneficiaries receive from the Federal Government when firefighters and police die on the job. The additional $50,000 for the spouse and each child is, he admits, ‘just some rough approximation of what I thought was fair.’”

Too many people try to place one value on all of human life in general, and this is a mistake. Because of other’s people’s clashing estimation of life value and the many “determinants” of somebody’s value, it is wrong to try and say that anyone is worth a certain amount of money. It is really safest to accept the fact that we cannot wrap our heads around the term, “priceless”, because that is what all life is, or at least, all human life. If it is absolutely necessary for you to try and put a monetary value on someone’s life, like in Kenneth Feinberg’s situation, perhaps you should put yourself in the shoes of the people closest to whoever’s life you are valuing.