By Mary Ann Paliani
What is the value of a human life? How can one describe its value or calculate it? The question haunts me as I view the massive slaughter of over 42,000 human beings in Gaza. I wonder — how can a civilized society allow this abomination? On one hand, society assures us that each human life has a priceless and inherent value. Yet it allows warfare to destroy that life in the most egregious manner possible. It’s as if it regards a person as no more valuable than $1 — the going rate of the chemical elements that make up a human body. Let’s look at this hard-to-answer question through several different lenses.
I asked friends and acquaintances: “How would you describe the value of a human life? How would you calculate it?” Their responses were: “We haven’t thought about it.” Probably, most of us consider the value of human life only when we have lost someone close to us. But we fail to deeply ponder the value of those lives outside of our circle, people who are half a world away from us.
How have the sages in our society addressed the issue?
In the religious sector, our value derives from our relationship with an almighty God who has endowed us with an eternal soul. As such we have an incalculable dignity.
On the other hand, economists will assign a monetary value to a person, based on an individual’s potential earnings, status, societal, economic, scientific and artistic contributions, or the essential functions they fill.
But do any of the above yardsticks capture the essence of a human being’s value? Let’s explore the question through a series of “might have beens.”
Suppose one of Adolf Hitler’s ancestors in the 17th century had died prematurely and failed to produce the progeny that would have led to Hitler’s birth. As a result, Hitler would never have come into being. Possibly, the Nazi party would never have come into existence. Germany’s involvement in World War 2 and the Holocaust might never have happened. The state of Israel might never have resulted. Finally, the Gaza-Israeli war might never have taken place. All of these “might have beens” would have occurred because one very ordinary human being had died prematurely hundreds of years earlier. Effectively that one person centuries ago would have influenced the path and direction of a future civilization and society. Consider the paradox — an ordinary individual who did nothing extraordinary in his or her lifetime had the effect of influencing a future world. How would one measure the value of that person? Ironically, neither the individual nor society would ever be aware of the influence that one ordinary individual unknowingly exerted.
Consider another example. Jesus Christ’s birth, life and death 2000 years ago have profoundly influenced human history and today’s social, institutional and religious structures. But what if he had never been born? How would our world appear today?
There is another way to look at the question. Peruse the obituary columns in the newspaper and note the countless and varied ways in which both ordinary and extraordinary individuals contributed to society and possibly influenced the myriad lives and paths of those around them during their lifetimes. In their lives, they knowingly or unknowingly released a ripple effect on our social structure that will endure forever.
Our Society is like an exquisite, complex and dynamic oriental tapestry. Each of us is like an individual thread in the fabric. Some threads are dark, some brilliant and others have a more subdued hue, but all are essential to the final work of art. Like the threads in the tapestry, we are all critical elements in a complex societal, ever-changing masterpiece. Therein lies our priceless and inherent value!
As we witness the mindless slaughter of innocent lives in the wars engulfing our world, we should ask ourselves: How has their destruction immutably and irreversibly altered our civilization’s destiny, for better or worse, until the end of time?
Mary Ann Paliani lives in Boulder.
