HOW DOES ONE VALUE A LIFE

Steve Jobs is back at work, testimony to the great distance cancer research has brought us. It certainly argues the statement: "all men are created equal". They are not. Their equality is limited to the fact that all living beings have worth but that worth can be determined only on several scales...worth to whom? worth for what? worth for what they will achieve in life? worth for the legacy to mankind they will leave behind? worth for how their having lived will make the lives of many others happier, more fulfilled, and helped to grow? or worthy because so many people depend on them for their own lives?

Philosophically and ethically, one may argue who has more 'right' to life. It is as useful as arguing how many angels can dance of the head of a pin. People's biases show over sadness of the loss of a child who 'has not had a chance to live to grow up', but one might not see that (as in Africa) they might have suffered unbearably while trying to grow up. One might argue that people who say at the funeral of someone in their 90s, "He/she had a good life." The implication is that longevity makes it okay to die now. It doesn't take into consideration that many people contribute to this world with their healthy minds and vast knowledge and experience no matter how many decades they live.

I've heard the argument that if we allow abortion we will never know if we have 'killed' a Mozart or a Beethoven. Every time there is an ejaculation without sperm contact with an ovum, we might ask the same question. It is ludicrous to argue with that mentality. People should not be in position to make that choice for others. However, shouldn't a person have the right to make that choice for self? Some churches would still have us suffer for the sins of Adam and Eve, etc. though we don't even agree on whether there ever was an Adam or Eve. It is considered to decide to take one's own life no matter what the suffering or prognosis. Why should someone else be given the right to make that choice?

The choice as to who lives or dies is made, often, by Nature, by chance, the law of averages, or by how much a person works to stay healthy and safe. I'm sure that there are many more worthy of life by some people's value system than I, but it pleases me that those people will probably not make that decision for me.