Life Calculator

When the major event 9/11 took place it caused the government to really question. What is a person's life truly worth? In the article “What is The Value of A Human Life?” by Kenneth Feinberg. He actually came up with the idea about how each individual's lives is valued financially. In the beginning of building this new law Feinberg came across that. Not everyone gets the same amount of compensation. For example, “The law required that I give more money to the stockbroker, the bond trader and the banker than to the waiter, the policeman, the fireman and the soldier at the Pentagon.” (Feinberg para 2). Since the required

In one article, What Is A Life Worth? by Amanda Ripley, it speaks about the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and how the attacks led to the development of the human life calculator. It calculates how much your life is worth, based on how much you make and would have continued to make if they had lived. “Every award will be based on a cold calculus, much the way courts handle wrongful-death claims” (Ripley 5). The calculator does not take into account the worth of a person's life, regardless of how much they make. The family members,friends, and lovers of those lost deserve to know that their loved one matters and was more than just a set number. These events changed the course of their lives forever. Many fought the government, saying that they felt their loved one was worth more than what was said and that that should be taken into account.

In Money Love, Lauren Slater explores the importance of life. Whether it be animal life of human life, each are proven to be equal, but in different ways. In the chapter, Slater even questions whether her daughter’s life is more important than a monkey’s, along with the human population in general. There is a part to humans that makes us much more likely to value our own lives over an animals’. The question is: is there really more value to a human’s life?

In sum, life is supposed to be about more than happiness. We are supposed to do something important, adhere to some ethic, and serve a greater good. We live for a goal, a principle, or a destiny—not just for pleasure.1

When a loved one dies, it feels like the end of your world. No apology could fix it. However, I believe that even the most sincere acts of sympathy and grief towards the victim(s) would show more respect than trying to put a price value on those who suffered. Amanda Ripley, author of WTC Victims: What’s A Life Worth?, writes about what the government planned to do to compensate for family losses. According to the article, Kenneth Feinberg, who is responsible for dispersing money to the ones that were increasingly affected by the attacks, without shame went into detail of how one can figure out how much the government is willing to pay. In the end, most people’s total compensation were either near or at zero. Many family members were appalled and a woman by the name of Maureen Halvorson even said,“I just can't accept the fact that the Federal Government is saying my husband and my brother are worth nothing.” It would have been more gratifying to those experiencing mass grief if the government simply sent out messages of deep condolence rather than try to put a zero next to the victim’s name.

Everyone has been led to believe that all lives are equal, and they are however, in terms of monetary value, lives are not equal. Aside the ethics about assigning value to the live it is still done. The justice system tries to resolve this loss by using unjust means. Life should not be given a value in any sort of currency, it is is not right as there is no way to put a price on something as priceless as life. Even if the life of a person is affected by an illness, their worth should not be decreased. All lives are equal, some people need more help than others and it should be given if and when deserve such help. The value of life has been contemplated throughout history, such as Shakespeare's (1599) play, hamlet; in which Hamlet’s

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein. Life should be viewed as a positive because everyone is only given one lifetime to do what they would like to. Although few people interpret life as a positive aspect such as Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, there is also other ways people see the value of life. Including Hamlet from William Shakespeare’s book Hamlet, he views life as a complication, and Amanda Ripley, who views life in a financial point of view. When faced with the perspective of life, many people see the value of life in a black or white manner but there is also a financial perspective as well. All of these views offer an interesting perspective regarding the value of life.

Susan R. Wolf (born 1952) is a moral philosopher who works extensively on the meaning of human life and is the Edna J. Koury Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wolf addresses the questions of the meaning of life in hope to distinguish the characteristics and reasoning that gives meaning to life. According to Susan Wolf view about the meaning in life, “I would say that meaningful life are lives of active engagement in projects of worth… two key phrases, ‘active engagement’ and ‘projects of worth’” (Wolf, 205). However, I believe that her proposal leaves out our basic motives and reasoning that’s

It is not good to feel too much joy nor to be glad that our body lives. For we matter not and it must not matter to us whether we live or die, which is to be as our brothers will it. But we, Equality 7-2521, are glad to be living. If this is a vice, then we wish no virtue.” (Rand 11)

We have to learn to balance the spectrum for the quality and quantity of life. Next, we have to discuss the biblical, theological, and cultural perspectives on end of life issues. Then, we will view potential impact on afterlife outcomes. Also, we will discuss variables involved in potential life trajectories. Finally, we will discuss challenges of integrated personal preferences and public policy in end of life standards and

According to the life calculator results, there are exactly fifty five more years left of my life. Reviewing these results has allowed me to develop the following outline for what I would like to accomplish with my limited time. In the immediate future, meaning until age twenty-four, I intend to still be studying at ACPHS. Throughout this semester I have been hoping to learn more about myself and the individual I want to become. I find that the injustices that bothered me in high school have taken a different form in college. Learning about the corruption in pharmaceuticals and the poor choices in drug regulation have led me to begin to consider a career that would allow me to counter some of these injustices. A prime example being the price of life saving drugs, such as those for cancer, being priced to a point where no one can afford them. Acquiring this

In “The Meaning of Lives,” Wolf asserts that the question “What is the Meaning of Life?” is inherently unintelligible because it is uncertain what the question is asking. In other words it is too general because it has no specified context. Wolf then acknowledges, however, that there is value in examining the meaningfulness of a life. This is because she observes people wanting meaning as an unchangeable fact. While there is no grand reason for meaning, she suggests that we can create value through what we do in our life. In her work, Wolf constructs a framework on how to obtain meaning in one’s life. I will examine her view, then critically discuss the positive attributes and the shortcomings. Wolf does a sufficient job to outline a possible way to achieve meaning. However, I will argue that a definition for the meaningful life that does not include morality and happiness is not sufficient. Lastly, I will express the subjective and objective tension that weakens her stance.

In, “This Too Is Life”, the author, Lu Hsun, writes about his thoughts on life and its values as he is dying of illness. Hsun first explains the duality of exhaustion and rest, the fearfulness of exhaustion and not being able what you have to do as you have already done too much. The fear of missing out on the active, productive parts or life where you feel like you are truly living, coupled at the same time with the blissfulness of rest and simply doing nothing and having nothing to do, experiencing the comforts of idleness. In these moments of inactivity, it is easy to feel as if one is not really living life, that life has no purpose if one is not being productive. But, what Hsun is trying to express

I believe value is something only an individual can assign to their own life based on experience and significance. A life is’t an object you can place a price on, it’s a complex network full of experiences good and bad shared with others. Everyone on this planet has value not just to themselves but to others as well but that value is higher than any amount of money existing. Everyones life has an effect on the people around them. If you were to die tomorrow everyones life in your network of family and friends would change

“It is difficult to understand the sum of a person’s life. Some people tell you it’s measured by the one’s left behind. Some believe it can be measured in faith. Some say by Love. Other folks say life has no meaning at all. Me… I believe you measure yourself by the people who measured themselves by you,” narrated by Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) in the movie “The Bucket List”. When you think of this quote you see that every individual determines the success of their life differently. Whether old or young, we are care about the life we live and whether is a could by our own standards. In the movie, Bucket List, you witness two men, Carter Chamber and Edward Cole, from two different backgrounds experience illnesses that leaves them with 6