Why do we consider some lives to be worth more than others?

JistheRealDeal

I personally view all people as equal. Some may have alot,and others don't. This doesn't mean one person is worth more than another, just more fortunate.

Kate

Well, kind of. Ex. Steve irwin. If someone had to die between him and a lazy bum, he would be mored important, more valued. his life would be worth more b/c he actually did a lot to help the world! May he rest in peace!!!

books are cool

Because of superiority complex of the individuals having that opinion. If you brought 2 dying patients to the emergency room, one a homeless person and another a priest, the doctors aren't going to try harder to save the priest over the homeless person. They will try equally hard to save them both.

A doctor is not better than a mechanic. A bank CEO is not better than a hairstylist. All types of people/jobs are needed in this world to provided a symbiotic mutualistic living relationship among one another. Ignorant thinking, opinion blaring, and media attention stirs up the controversies, leading to your question.

John H

Because of geographical seperation, if something happens elsewhere , we tend to have diffcuilty in relating to this because there is not any immediate local effect.This now put in context of lives seems to be the same. One feels empathy with fellow human beings troubles but if our ability to use our own action to change it is curtailed by our physical location, we tend to think of situation as out of our control. Lets just say if all the people who were against the war in Iraq and Afganistan were given a free ride to these countries and organised a rally in protest of the war , who/how many would go?

NereidoftheBlue

Just like what some may have already suggested, being humans, people do tend to judge each other, classfying them, and categorizing them. Therefore, there are those who's lives, in this case, are worth more than others.

It's not true overall, ofcourse, because if you take a rich person and strip them of all their belongings and authority, they'd be no better than that beggar living in the street looking forward to find food in the trash to survive.

We're all humans, and most of the humance race need to realize that. Especially nowadays, where ignorance is still a big problem.

Answers1

Your question is a false one.

If you have ever traveled to a third world country you will see firsthand why THEY consider THEIR citizens' lives worth very little. There is no WE in this picture...you are trying to lay guilt trips on WE.

Malcolm

I believe the following is a true story that may answer the question from a Christian perspective: A Christian Minister was sailing with his son and the son's friend when the boat capsized. Both boys were in trouble. The father knew his son to be a Christian and would be safe in the arms of Jesus if he died, but the friend had not yet made that important decision in his life. The father therefore decided to save the friend, and as a result his son drowned. This story was told many years later by a guest speaker in the father's Church. He ended by saying that he was that boy and had come to know Jesus as his Saviour as a result of the father's sacrifice.

Answerer

Humans are political beings. Without our views of important rather than unimportant, we'd be in chaos. Look at primates. Lions. All other animals in the Animal kingdom as though humans. They all take upon some form of leadership icon to guide them. If that importance and value was not there, they'd be lost as a group, and much conflict would occur. Human relations, as though romantic or political, always take upon the ideals of value through money, status, and power, each one being a step closer to one of the others. Women like you more for it, and Society likes you more the more of any of the three you have. It wouldn't be wrong to say that societally, those three things are the meaning of life. On a deeper level, once those three things have occurred one will search out deeper meanings, but for the most part, those things are prerequisites.

craftykid22

Because humans have a tendency to classify everything, organize our thoughts and opinions. Unfortunately, we don't always understand that there are limits to classifying certain things.

_Picnic

The answers so far simply don't tally with what I bet most of you would say if I asked if your life is worth more than a mass murderer.

Saying some people's lives are worth more than others is NOT the same as saying that some people deserve to be ALIVE more than others.

If everybody's life is of equal worth then choosing to be philanthropic, kind to animals and children or highly skilled in some field through your own hard work would be of the same worth as someone who spent their life spreading misery.

What is important to remember is that it doesn't matter what your beginnings were, with work you can be outstanding in some way, whether it is caring for a family, or being a great painter or musician or whatever.

Of course, you can say you can never define someone's worth by looking at them or even by knowing them closely as you will be biased and judging them on your own selective criteria.

In the grand scheme of things, maybe we are all just a collection of DNA with no special meaning beyond our own perception and the perception we give to other people but I would like to be more romantic about the achievements of people such as John Lennon, Picasso and Shakespeare and that humanistic approach is the one we tend to usually have. Whatever flaws great people have are just by-products or relatively insignificant compared to their talents.

á»‰Î· ×¥Ù¥Úµ

because "we" are mistaken. all life is god. treat it like this and the world will have zero problems

greeneyedprincess

Equality begins with yourself.

Most people consider their own life to be worth more than others. Many people expand their definition of "self" to include friends and family, and therefore those lives are worth more to them than others. Further people tend to add value to people who share common characteristics with themselves. Those people's lives are valued more than others, because they are included in that broad definition of "self".

The root cause for this is a biological imperative to live, to procreate and to pass on and defend your personal genetic code.
It is a low-level animal instinct. (Consider: Examples of true pacifists/martyrs often include the celibate.)

To value equality we must put aside our animal instincts. If you do not perceive yourself to be equal to others, then you will classify people based on arbitrary charectaristics, and you will value their lives less than yours, and those you love.

Little Wifey

Well to me it is very simple.
It has to do with perception.
I see a child molestor as worthless. I wouldn't care if he was hung from the town hall at noon and then his head was left on the bridge to the city for all to see until the bird ate away from it and all the flesh was gone. To me it would be to much of a honor for so low a being.
Now my own daughter, I would move mountains for her. When I go to the school plays all I can see is her face. She is not better, but she is of my womb and I hold her in higher esteem because of that.
Mother Teresa: She was a woman of ages. Kind. Loving. Giving. I hold her in higher esteem than I do the trailer trash women in my neighborhood that vandalize buildings and abuse there kids and shoot up drugs.
When we are born we all start equal I think. And in the eyes of God were are all equal. But to each an every one of us, we see the world according to what has happened since then (the day of our birth) and according to our perception formed from events since then.
While I love all of mankind.....I can honestly say, the only thing that makes us the same....is that we are all very very different.

StarShine G

I dont consider it . we are all equal .

Kirk_84

Well, if someone said to you
"You have a choice of my killing your Mum or the girl answering this question"
You would choose your Mum to live because to you, her life is worth more than mine because she is close to you and you have no idea who I am!

Avatari

If those lives who help others and do not in anyway harm others then naturally those lives I will consider more worthy than that of the criminals.

taketwo

Bush thinks it is.

robert s

My answer may be rather simplistic because my answer is ego everybody has one snd it is the nature of the ego to feed itself through the tearing down of the other persons egoic defenses as well as their ideals, morals, and attitudes to make itself appear stronger in the eyes of others as well as themselves. People tend to place value on material aspects of their lives cars, homes, money, even education and other status symbols this makes people feel more important in their own eyes ergo they value themselves more be it collectively or individually. These are conclusions that I have come to from studyinmg the teachings of Gautana Sidhartha(Budda), Lao Tzu, Jesus , and other enlightened teachers and philosophers.

Lunar_Chick

An excellent question and I wish I knew the answer.

I run my own business but I also work as a receptionist for a small local company.

When I am the boss of my own business I am treated with respect, but when I am seen as a lowly receptionist I am often ignored or spoken down to. It upsets me a great deal as I try to treat everyone the way I would wish to be treated myself no matter what they do for a living, their age, or their ethnicity.

alain_alain

all lives are worth it
there arent any worthless lives on this world
even in the other planets
you are wothy, ponder on that

Heart

In response to only your question and not the information that follows: Have you purposely stepped on a bug lately?

Most people value human life more over insect, animal, or plant life. I know I won't get best answer and I don't care; the point is the answer is very plainly "YES" on a large scale, but personally, I value all life everywhere equally.

sargentaaron2004

I have also wondered about this question. You get punished more for assaulting a police officer then you do assaulting anybody else.

You get life in prisonment for murdering a human being but not for murdering a dog or cat?

Its human ignorance.

lightningfastfords

I don't, all is equal, we all live ,and we all die, the rest is up to God

Ricky

Because some people only think about helping others and work
hard with this in mind, whilst others only think of themselves.

Fiona M

I believe that all people are equal and should always be treated that way, but if you have to choose who you save and who you cant then you would choose your loved ones, children and people in the most danger to save first.

It all comes down to who needs the most help, who you can save and what else can be done. I would like to think that i would do my upmost to help all people no matter what.

some people are worth fighting for while others are worth fighting.
always believe in the greater good.

momof3

Well you may consider some lives worth more than others but I do not.
Every single person brings something of value to someone or something no matter how small and insignificant that may be to some to others it means the world.

kraut2505

Simple, it's a case of importance and love that this particular life means to us, example my girlfriends life or my sons life is by far more important to me than the one of somebody crossing the street 200 yards from here, a young child being blown to bits by a suicide bomber or anything along those lines. We are being selfish because of what these people give and mean to us.

ekonomix

It's a fact due to the way we evolved, and we have not eveolved out of this 'instinct' yet.

Bottomline, the people closer to us mean more to us. The definition of closer is what metters.

This is not only immediate family, but also people in our social circle, people in our village/town/city/county/state/country..â€¦ Also some individuals are also considered close to us, such as tv or movies people, certain politicians...

The reason is that in as early human society was structured, in tribes, working for the tribe was important for survival.

Now, it's not only the people themselves, but also what they consider close to them.

Remember the TV series about animal rescues in the US? People cheer while helicopters are sent to rescus a moose trapped in an ice hole, but are not aware that for a fraction of teh cost, a human life could be saved in Africa. The Moose is 'American' so worth a lot. I used the US as an example but I mean that the degree of insularity of people is an important factor.

As for TV personalities, recall the recent outpouring of grief over the death of Steve Irwin. I was shocked myself. He became part of our life through the TV; that's another way to be close. This could be becauseofthe cause he was fighting for, or for his own personality, or both.

Similarly certain political leaders generate a huge following across the world because of what they represent; again one feels close (in terms of ideals).

If we want to do soemthing about this, and treat lives equally, what we need is information, why do we keep seeing images of 9/11 but not of Darfur. 9/11 is over and done with; people who died have died; no more people are dying on such a scale. In Darfur people are still being killed.

What we need is media that seeks to change people's opinions to make an even field, not one who has its own agenda, or merely follows the monsters it helped create.

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