The value of a human life.

[Blemontea]

For me Humans are lower on my list of life worth, after years of recorded hypocrisy, evil deeds, and out right dickisness. But I still I wouldn't just randomly kill a passing stranger i didn't know neither for profit or stress relief,

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

You are rather morbid. I hold human life pretty highly myself, even for people who probably deserve to die. As such, I am not in favor of the death penalty and such. Of course, as much as any of us like to hold ourselves to lofty morals and taking the high road, there is always something that can make you go against it.

 

[Ewyx]

Philisophically, not much. I have a lot of people I would miss if they died, but there are 10x that number that I couldn't give a damn about. In fact, if I could own slaves, a good protion of my class would be my servants and be brutally tormented. Even typing this I'm thinking of those stupid bitches in my school that like to tough and are only a foot taller when they wear heels. In fact, for the right amount of money, I would probally kill someone like many of the other people on here. I'm evil like that.

From the stance of philosophy you're actually absolutely wrong. A lot of different branches of philosophy acknowledge that nothing outside of the human mind can ever be known, from that we can easily say that life has the highest value of them all. Nothing can supersede life, for without life, there is nothing. There are probably other branches that might agree with you.

 

[Fanta Grape]

In terms of economical value, logically speaking, it would make sense. Our capitalist society demands huge amounts of resources per person and bla bla bla.

From a philosophical point of view, the value of something is quite relative. Money is worth food but in the jungle where there are no other humans, it's worth nothing. There needs to be some sort of artificial factor added in as a point of reference. This may come in the form of morals, religion and ethics. For me, I'd say life has no value because as of now, I don't have a higher belief. A life is a life, but it is not equal to any life. It isn't equal to anything. It just is. In this sense, I'd be willing to sacrifice a hundred people for one person or vice versa. When used in a practical sense though, most people just go to the 1:1 ratio, as in one human life is equal to another. Therefore, no. The value of human life does not decease as the population becomes larger.

 

[Shakomaru]

ONE HUNDRED TRILLION DOLLARS!

 

[DarkRyter]

We would have to turn it into a commodity and then let the market decide price.

It's probably not that much. Not that much demand for life these days. And there's alot of problems with oversupply, surprisingly in much weaker economies.

 

[MetaKnight670]

Who is to say what human life is worth though?
I personally wouldn't kill someone for profit unless it was a heck of a massive amount of money and I could get away with it because who knows, maybe the person I just killed could have cured cancer!!
So yes, I value human life pretty highly.
But anyways, that's just my opinion.

 

[gabe12301]

Human life should be valued infinitely until lost. It sounds awkward when explaining over the internet so interpret it however you'd like.

Plus the population wont grow for long.

It seems no one on this site learned about demographic transition stages in school.

North america and most of Europe are in stage four. ALL countries will eventually transition to four. then a theoretical five where the population drops rather then staying steady.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Human life is precious, every single one. Who are you to say that the one annoying kid you know may not grow up to be a talented musician or something? We all have potential for great things and it is a waste of potential whenever someone dies. I could never kill for money.

 

[fulano]

Subjective.

My family and friends are of huge value to me. The rest of you aren't worth anything at all to me.

Lemme guess: you're a teenager?

 

[Canadamus Prime]

But seriously, keep offering money and eventually everyone breaks their morals. I'd kill someone for the right amount if I knew I could get away with it with the money. there's a guy I'd... well... no, nevermind.

Speak for yourself! There is no amount of money anyone could offer me to kill someone. If I'm going to kill someone I'm going to need a better reason than pure financial gain.

Which brings me to my opinion on the matter, I think all life should be valued equally, be it human, animal, or otherwise. And if a life is to be taken it better be for a damn good reason.
For example, survival (which inc. sustenance) is a good reason. Financial gain, however, is NOT a good reason.

 

[emeraldrafael]

But seriously, keep offering money and eventually everyone breaks their morals. I'd kill someone for the right amount if I knew I could get away with it with the money. there's a guy I'd... well... no, nevermind.

Speak for yourself! There is no amount of money anyone could offer me to kill someone. If I'm going to kill someone I'm going to need a better reason than pure financial gain.

Which brings me to my opinion on the matter, I think all life should be valued equally, be it human, animal, or otherwise. And if a life is to be taken it better be for a damn good reason.
For example, survival (which inc. sustenance) is a good reason. Financial gain, however, is NOT a good reason.

yes, you say that now, just like how Im sure all those "corrupt" CEO types said they would never betray their morals. Or journalists. or doctors. and while I cant say for certain youw ould, I dont honesty think you could say for certain you wouldnt until its right there in front of you. Its easy to say now you wouldnt kill for money if you want an astronomical sum that there's no real plasuible way you'd get it. But once its in front of you, an actuality, things start to change.

It may be a generalization, but its had a moer successful track record than an unsucessful one, and has led me to wait till soemone proves it than take their word alone.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Which brings me to my opinion on the matter, I think all life should be valued equally, be it human, animal, or otherwise. And if a life is to be taken it better be for a damn good reason.
For example, survival (which inc. sustenance) is a good reason. Financial gain, however, is NOT a good reason.

Bacteria, plants, fungus aswell? Because they are alive aswell.

 

[Drakmorg]

I remember hearing somewhere that economists actually have a calculation for what the average human life is worth in monetary terms in order to determine if safety measures are actually worthwhile.
Last I heard it was $6.3 million.

 

[Naeo]

The value of a human life is not something you can measure. Period. It is not a commodity to be bought and sold, and a human is not an inanimate object like a widget that you buy and sell (unless you're the kind of person who deserves only the worst things to happen to them). Also, value=/=price. Something can have infinite value and be priced at a penny, or have no value and be ten million dollars. Human life is not something you can put a value on, because it's in a fundamentally different class of things than any other sort of thing.

 

[emeraldrafael]

... It is not a commodity to be bought and sold, ...

I think slavery has something to say about that. Or those arranged marriages (cause lets face it, you're basically buying the daughter).

 

[Naeo]

... It is not a commodity to be bought and sold, ...

I think slavery has something to say about that. Or those arranged marriages (cause lets face it, you're basically buying the daughter).

Gonna quibble a bit here. I meant that as "it is not something that should ever be bought and sold", not "it is something that has never been".

Captcha: engtti BUCCKLE'S

 

[SenseOfTumour]

All depends on the life, it seems.

From what I've seen of the political speeches recently in the US, a foetus's life is worth the world, while if it's allowed to grow up and get sick, we should 'let it die!! YEAAH!!'

I think the people making this speech should just be clear and set the ages at which we could legally start killing stuff legally. You can wipe up a puddle of semen, but if it's just entered a woman it's a life, 18 years later, we can strap it in a chair and wire it up to the national grid and that's fine, or we can send it to go get blown up in the middle east, nothing like the horror of an abortion.

Hell if it does survive the military and does it's time, if it then can't afford healthcare we should 'let it die' again. It amazes me the number of ex serving soldiers homeless and destitute in the US. I'm not pro military, but we seriously need to divery some of the sick puppies and kittens money to getting some of the people who fought for your freedom back into society, not leave em to fade away on the streets now they're used up.

 

[crudus]

HUman life, like many things, is worth about three fiddy.

Probably closer to $6.5 million (last I checked, which was about a 2 years ago).

As anybody who took an economic class will tell you, the more of a product you have, the less expensive it becomes. So with the human population growing, would it be more acceptable to kill another human? Or am I just morbid? Anyway, I just think it's weird, what value does the life of another person have to you?

Why would it be acceptable to kill another? Nobody outright destroys their products if they have too many(well, there's a certain point where they are destroyed by an owner for recycling purposes or what have you, but humans don't have owners).

(cause lets face it, you're basically buying the daughter).

And up until about 20-30 years ago you were buying her virginity. Either people were fine with that or had a hard time letting go.

 

[Supertegwyn]

Not really. There are far too many of us,

It's like that story, later a film, where you get lots of money to press a button that kills somebody you don't know.

I'd be hammering away at that button like I'd drank 299 cups of coffee.

That is exactly what I would do. Human life is lovely, but there are too many of us and somebody needs to pay.