The Value of Life

Picture Courtesy Of - Anny Cecilia Walter

What determines the value of life? Are humans more important than animals? Is an unborn baby’s life more important than the mother’s? What about a terrorist, is their life equal to the victim of their attack?

I say they are all of equal standing, that life, no matter what or whose it is are all on equal ground. How can I claim this? How can I possibly think that the life of a terrorist is equal to that of an innocent child? I can claim this because I am speaking only of the life itself and not of the emotional value that I place upon it.

The separation of the two, life and the emotional values that one attaches to a particular life, are very different matters. The life of those closest to me, the people I have an emotional attachment to are going to be far more valued to me than someone of whom no emotional attachment has been made. I will certainly feel the life of my daughter is more important than the life of a stranger but this is not because my daughter’s life is truly more important. To the stranger’s family the stranger’s life will be the one taking precedent. The emotions connected to the lives we encounter determine their worth to us.

Can an animal be just as important as a human family member? Yes. The emotional value placed on the animal by a person can be just as deep and complicated as one’s connection to a member of the same species. If that person has developed complex emotional ties to another living being the value they place on that being’s life is every bit as real as the value they have placed on a human’s.

It can be difficult to separate our emotions from one living being to another. This is why some living beings will fight to the death to protect the ones they love. Their emotional investment is so deep they are not able to see beyond the love that they feel. They would rather suffer the pain of death than see or be aware of the suffering of the one they are invested in.

All of this though, is illusory. It doesn’t change the actual value of the life at stake. If a person were made to choose between the death of a loved one and the death of a stranger, it would be expected that they would choose to save the one they love. If, however, that same person was made to choose between two people they had never met and knew nothing about, it would render the person indifferent as to who should die. While they may feel abhorrent about having to make the choice, without an emotional value attached to either person the choice is strictly pragmatic.

If each life, then, is measured by the emotional value placed upon it, the causes we fight for; the rights of the unborn, those on death row, the starving children, those suffering from medical ailments, animals being senselessly slaughtered…all of it…becomes an illusion. The reality of it is that no one life is more important than any other, it is our emotional attachments that create the illusion in our minds that one life is more important than another.

Therefore, holding this to be true; if humans could set their emotions aside and detach from the causes they have become emotionally invested in, they should be able to place an equal standard onto all living beings. By doing so, they then should be able to step back and truly see life on even ground. Once this has been accomplished the emotional investment they had prior can then be reapplied creating a deeper appreciation of the love they had to begin with while continuing to hold an understanding and equal reverence for all life no matter how unassuming it may be.

It is essential for a human being to be able to remove oneself from emotional attachment in order to truly appreciate the emotional attachments they have. Any failure to do this leaves a person in the illusory state which causes them to mistakenly believe that one life is more precious than another and that death is acceptable for a being of lesser value. If we choose to rest in this illusion then it seems doubtful that we will ever be able to rise above our emotional selves making it impossible to discover a higher potential, a higher self within one’s self. As the human race has, for centuries, sought to become more civilized, more understanding and caring, more aware of the needs of those around us I would suggest that it has become even more important now to detach emotionally so as to re-sensitize, or reset, our emotional compass.

By no means am I saying that we should become emotionless. I would not advocate turning one’s self into a cold, empty vessel. It may seem an oxymoron but by detaching from our emotional investments we become more open to being emotionally invested on a larger scale. Creating an emotional detachment happens by consciously acknowledging our emotional attachments for what they are, an emotional investment we have made. We must understand our emotional investments so that we become capable of recognizing when our connection with someone is causing a prejudice response toward another, thereby devaluing the other’s life. By doing this, senseless loss of life will come to an end.

Every living being wants to continue to live. Ask yourself this, why does the zebra run from the lion? It does so because it understands that it will die if it is caught….and well, no one wants to be a meal. Prey wouldn’t run from predators if they didn’t want to live. It is the most basic instinct of the living…survival. From plant life to us everything that is alive will do all in its power to stay alive. With this ingrained so deeply throughout the cosmos how can one possibly believe that their right to exist outweighs the right of another?

The value of a life is simply this…it’s alive. Working to truly understand this on the most primal level can alter a perspective and create a deeper sense of compassion. With a deep compassion comes the ability to value all life equally which in turn allows a person to live in better harmony with other living beings. When more people are living in harmony the world becomes a better place. If you want the world to be better, release your emotional ties by accepting that the values you place on life are due to the emotional investments you have made throughout your lifetime. Once this has been accomplished your compassion for all living beings will increase and you will be a better person, creating a better world.