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Amanda Ripley's Essay: The Value Of Human Life

Decent Essays

In today’s society the value of human life is based on discrimination. Occupational salary, insurance plans, and tax deductions define a person’s worth in the eyes of the government. Inequality plays a significant role in this unjust system that categorizes each life into a monetary bracket where the story of each individual is disregarded and forgotten, leaving only a dollar sign. A life is worth more than any dollar amount and should be valued by individual compassion, impact, and attitude. Humans are not numbers. A person’s worth should not be defined by one’s financial assets. Through the words of author Amanda Ripley in “What is a life Worth?” the reader is introduced to the concept of determining life’s abstract value into actual dollars …show more content…

Determining the amount of damages that should be given to the different types of people is the central issue of the article. “I had always accepted that no two lives were worth the same in financial terms. But now I found the law in conflict with my growing belief in the equality of all life” (Ripley 3). This means that the best solution from a moral standpoint should be that all victims receive the same recompense. Feinberg’s job, however, was to administer the congressional directive to ensure victims’ families “maintain something resembling their current standard of living.” (Feinberg 11). His work attempted to uncover the true value of life by diverting attention away from a lump sum of money for each victim, and instead focusing on the victims’ lives, ensuring that each family gets what they deserve. Using complex calculations of compensating for potential unearned wages and then deducting other financial assets meant that some families actually qualified for no money at all. Did that meant that their loved one’s life was worthless? The government’s virtuous intentions, while seen by many as flawed, were not always derided. Victim David Gordenstein, who lost his wife on 9/11 reflects, “I am proud of what my country tried to do. I think the intention is noble” (Ripley

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