Notes

What is the value of life?
There are many questions in life that are declared unanswerable but is this one of them? Yes, we could say that the value of a life is equivalent to another life. i. But is even that simple statement true? First,we have to wonder in what context we mean when we talk of the "value of a life" Are we speaking about a human life? When we speak of the value of a life are we considering whether someone has lived life to the full potential or are we speaking about whether a persons life is worth death? Is a life considered unmeasurable?

An interesting case is the trial of Steven Avery. He was a man falsely accused of attempted murder and sexual assault, this was then proven wrong and he was freed from prison after 18 years. Although, after this he was again put into prison for killing a different women,Theresa Halbach, this case had a lot of evidence to support the theory Avery was the killer. Netflix created a world famous series following Steven Avery's situation. After watching the series over a million people signed a petition to have Avery pardoned for the crime and freed from prison.

This case can bring forward two different points. Are all lives valued equally? Or Is the value of someone's life weakened by their place in society? In what way are we speaking about the value of a life?

It is odd that over a million people decided that Theresa Halbach's life was not worthy of punishment. Yes, Steven Avery had to spend 18 years of his life in prison for a crime he was wrongly convicted of but are we now declaring that 18 years in prison is the value of someone's life being taken forever?

We must also consider whether we are now declaring that these three people's lives have different values. The first women, penny Bernstein, did not die yet people agreed with the conviction of 32 years. Yet, the second woman did die and people agreed that Avery should not be punished due to his time in prison beforehand.

Could it be that these three people's lives were valued differently due to their position in society. Before being in prison for the first case Avery was declared an outsider of society. Due to his families norms and his low IQ. He was not valued as a member of society because he had his own. However, the women who's crime he was committed for was a valued member of society. As well as this it was common knowledge that the sheriff who was in control of Avery's case did not like him,due to issues between Avery and the sheriff's wife. Could we say that due to the sheriffs higher position in society his opinion was valued higher than Avery's, the sheriff valued Avery's life as less worthy of freedom than the women. Then there is the other wonder of whether Avery's freedom was valued as worth more than Theresa Halbach's life.

Another concern that must be taken into interest when we discuss the value of a life is whether the value of a human life differs to the value of an animal life or a foetus. In most first world countries abortions are widely accepted, this is because most people accept that the life of a foetus is not equal to the life of a human. They're not valued as equal.
It is also fascinating that animal's lives (not including humans) are not seen as equal in values to human lives. This is evident in many ways. One simple example is that China is the largest manufacturing country in the entire world however by law there products must be tested on animals however it is widely seen in society for it to be unacceptable for makeup to be accepted in humans. We value humans comfort over animals even though animals do not offer consent,whereas humans do. This argument does not directly link to whether humans lives are valued over animals but it does offer the view point that because humans are the creatures at the top of the food chain we are in control of the situation and therefore we are allowed to decide the value of lives.

A point that I would like to further expand upon is that the value of a human life can differ from the view society has on this person. A simple example of the differing values of human life is the death penalty. Although, banned in England many first world countries still use and