Assessing Life’s Value
Most people would agree that their lives have value; however, when we take a close look at the value of a human life, we realize that several different factors come into play. Life is what we know, and knowledge is value. Life offers tasks we can do to make ourselves and others happy. In life we have loved ones who help us see our lives as being valuable. Also, when we devote ourselves to the protection and care of others, we see a purpose to our lives, giving it another kind of value. Furthermore, we can’t ignore the dollar value of a human life, calculated when we want to know how much money is required to keep a person’s dependents living comfortably if that person were to die. Finally, sometimes just seeing something that we find beautiful is enough to show us life’s value. Because circumstances and perspectives change throughout one’s life, and because people are different and have different values, assigning value to life involves more than just numbers.
There may be times that people question the value of life, even to the point of seeing no value in it at all. For example, in Hamlet’s soliloquy he tells himself that his fear of death is the only reason he doesn’t end his life. Life’s only value to him at this moment is that he knows its certainty, and he does not know what will come to him when his life is over. Hamlet feels he has no reason to live, so he thinks that other than the fact that he knows it, his life has no other value. On the other hand, Roger Ebert, who, like Hamlet, has had very challenging experiences that many would consider horrible, is able to see other things that make life worth living. True, Ebert does not have the pressure Hamlet has to avenge his father’s death, and Ebert is an older man who has had many years to develop a more mature outlook on life. Hamlet’s youth and the pressure put upon him by his father’s ghost might excuse him for having suicidal thoughts, and therefore the comparison between him and Ebert may not be a fair one. Yet, most of us have experienced times of despair, times in which we think only of escape, times when life’s demands are overwhelming. And some of us, like Hamlet, have consciously chosen to live, at least partly because we fear the unknown of what lies beyond this life.
Roger Ebert valued his life so much for a couple of reasons: his work in life being a movie critic not only paid the bills, but was something he truly loved to do; he also loved his wife and she loved him, and having this person made him value his life even more. After he was diagnosed with cancer, his life changed dramatically.Nevertheless, this did not stop him from enjoying and valuing his life. After losing his voice he found a way to continue to do what he loved, sharing his movie reviews. He started a blog so his fans could read his reviews after he could no longer be on television. Furthermore, he wrote about other topics, such as his strugglesliving with cancer, his general outlook on life, and even one of his other passions, cooking. These activities brought value to Ebert’s life not only because they were things he loved to do, but also because they benefitted others. The cancer required several operations that ultimately led to the loss of much of his face and a drastic change in his appearance after reconstructive surgery. His beloved wife Chaz was with him and provided support throughout this hardship, and in Chris Jones’s interview Ebert makes it clear how much he loved her for it. Their relationship demonstrates how much value they brought to each other’s lives.
Another example of how relationships bring value to our lives can be found in the story of William Jones and his adopted son Aaron. Jones was the first single man in California to adopt a child. When he met Aaron at the adoption home he didn’t want him at first because he wanted to adopt a baby, and Aaron was three years old.Jones left the home and when he returned, Aaron ran up to him and threw his arms around his legs, and Jones couldn’t turn away again. But the story wasn’t an entirely happy one. Aaron’s birth mother was a heroin addict when she had him, and Aaron suffered disabilities because of that addiction. Furthermore, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was a teen. Despite these difficulties, and even after Jones suffered the ultimate loss when Aaron himself overdosed on heroin at the age of thirty, Jones declared "I still cry over the ending. But ... I would do it again. I loved him so much, and he loved me, too. And so, I was lucky in so many ways."
One way in which we measure the value of a human life is in terms of money. Controversial as this may be, there are circumstances in which such calculations are called for. When heads of households purchase life insurance, for example, they are figuring out how much money their lives are worth to surviving family members if they die. Insurance companies allow customers to use software which calculates how much insurance the family will need to replace the income of the deceased. Another example of human lives translating into dollars and cents is when a government or private citizens wish to compensate families of the victims of tragedies such as the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center or the mass shooting at Virginia Tech University in 2007. In both of these cases, Kenneth Feinberg managed funds that were set up to compensate victims’ families. Later he wrote an essay in which he explains how he arrived at his views on determining the monetary value of a human life. “What is an individual life worth?” he asks. “Do our lives have equal value? Struggling with these questions led me to my belief.”
For those affected by the 9/11 disaster, Feinberg’s calculations were largely determined by laws that had already been set up which based amounts of compensation on the victim’s earnings. He was able to even things out a bit among the wealthy and not so wealthy victims by deducting other payouts coming from insurance and pension funds, but the fact that some were granted more or less than others bothered him. He understood the anger victim’s family members felt when they were compensated with a lesser amount, and suggested that the anger was not based in greed, but rather in the appearance that their loved one was “worth” less than someone else. When he managed the Virginia Tech victim compensation fund six years later, he was allowed much more freedom because it was a private fund rather than a government fund. “ … I realized that Feinberg the citizen should trump Feinberg the lawyer. My legal training would no longer stand in the way. This time all victims — students and faculty alike — would receive the same compensation.”
Ultimately, the value of a human life is, of course, incalculable, simply because it can be measured in so many different ways. How can one place a value on those things only human beings can recognize, things such as love, beauty, knowledge, talent, or even simple companionship? In Sarah Teasdale’s poem “Barter” she points out the “loveliness” life has to offer, loveliness that comes with the “cost” of living. Experiencing and witnessing such moments of beauty, the poet contends, is priceless: “Buy it and never count the cost.” Our ability to acknowledge and appreciate beauty in its many forms is indeed something which sets us apart from all other creatures, something which makes every one of our lives more priceless than the rarest of jewels. While a certain amount of wealth may be necessary to survive and flourish in today’s world, money is merely a human invention. The value of a human life is determined by the individual who lives it, whether that be a Hamlet or an Ebert, a Bill Jones or an Aaron. In any case, when it comes down to it, our lives are all any of us really has.