The value of life is a topic entangled in our morals, values, and culture. It's complex idea, viewed differently by everyone, and significant in our perspective on life and living itself. To present the issue at hand, I will take you back to a memory that I ponder frequently, a moment in time that makes me question what I stand for, who I am.
I work at a Veterinary office, full of puppies and kittens, but also euthanasia, unsolved cases and moral questions that cannot be answered. A small Shitzu, just 10 pounds and named Allie, was sitting on the exam table. Allie had bladder stones so large that an inexperienced hand like mine could feel them through her belly. She needed surgery, she was in pain, and her owner could not afford any of the treatment. The owner pleaded that the surgery be postponed until the end of the month, once she got her paycheck. The problem was that Allie did not have a month, she was extremely dehydrated, her kidneys were failing, and her eyes sunken in. Allie had 24 hours to live without a surgery that cost money that no one seemed to have. The doctor recommended euthanasia, the result of many cases involving financial dilemmas in veterinary medicine. Allie's life was on the line due to something as simple as money.
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| Courtesy of PicMonkey |
Perspective is important, so lets take a look into the human world, specifically in the United States. When a human's life is on the line, if a life saving surgery is needed, it happens, no matter what. A human life is considered priceless in our society. However, the life of an animal has monetary value. Should a life be worth a certain amount of money? Is a human life more valuable than an animal's life? If so, why? Who has the power to determine what lives have more value than others?
An important case study to delve into is Harambe. (Cue the laughter, jokes, and endless memes, but seriously, this story adds to the value of life analysis) If you are unfamiliar with this example, please watch this
video. An
article in Huffington Post asks its readers to respond to a simple statement:
An individual gorilla is more valuable than an individual human being. Everyone disagrees, in other words, no one argues that an animal life is worth more than a child's. Yet there is still controversy.
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| Conservation Biologist Reed Noss: Credit |
Conservation biologist Reed Noss argues that the value of a human life decreases proportionately with the size of the population. In other words, the value of an endangered individual is greater than an individual human.
How do you react to Noss's statement above? Whether it is religious based or personal values most, including myself, find it difficult to agree with this statement. This idea is anthropomorphism, the idea of human-centered ethics, or quite simply human-supremacy. But why do we we feel this way?
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| Courtesy of Excel |
Moving on from the Harambe example, we must also consider the comparison of animal execution and human execution. Humans are only executed if they have committed a heinous crime or if they are on the verge of death from a terminal illness. However, animals are killed for sport, for their furs, their horns, and the thrill of the kill. An eye-opening counter on
adept.org shows that the number of animals killed in a year is over 150 billion as opposed to 53.3 million humans. Both numbers are extremely painful
to consider, because ideally no one should be killed, but look at the extreme difference. It conveys how the value of an animal life is so much less in our society.
Through these examples it is obvious that humans lives are worth so much more. Money determines if an animal lives, Harambe is an example of human supremacy, and execution standards blatantly display the differences in how we perceive the value of life. As a future veterinarian, everyday will involve this moral question. I wonder if I will be able to put an animal to sleep because an owner can not afford its care. Will I be able to end a life knowing that it could live if money was not a concern?
Where do you stand on this moral dilemma? Can you full-heartedly say that a human's life is worth more than an animal's in all cases? Where do you think we place value, in other words, how do we determine when a life is worth more than another?
This is actually a big part of the reason I went vegetarian. I whole heartedly believe that my life cannot be valued above that of any animal. Also I never understood by we value the life of a dog or a horse more than that of a chicken or a cow. As for harambe I think the mother was irresponsible and should have been watching her kid but I understand why the zoo did what they did. But I also believe he should have never been locked up to begin with. Zoos are also pretty cruel.
ReplyDeleteUntil Harambe, I've never noticed how important animal life was to us humans. I personally think that animal lives are just as important as humans lives because they provide so much for us.
ReplyDeleteI love that you advocate for all lives, and I think more people need this perspective. We should not be placing human lives above animals, and it is not really our decision to do so in the first place.
ReplyDeleteFirst, RIP Harambe. Once again, your bog makes me want to go vegetarian! I don't believe that animals should be treated the way that they are, whether it's realting to cost of surgery or in the case of Harambe. I've always hated hunting, but my uncle and cousin still insist on going. I just could never intentionally kill an animal just for fun. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteCan I start off by saying I think it's extremely cool that you work at a veterinary office? I was especially touched by your paragraph where you talk about the comparison between human executions and animal executions. Animals aren't known for committing heinous crimes to mankind, so why do we treat them so, by killing them? You have a really great point about how little we value animal life.
ReplyDeleteWhat I never understood about Harambe is that the kid wasn't even killed(right)? Honestly, and this is really hardcore victim blaming, the kid didn't even look too terribly stressed out in the video (again I could be really wrong) and how on earth did he get into the cage in the first place? What should have been addressed was how he got in, and how to prevent something like that to happen again, not "oh we better kill this rogue gorilla". I just think its entirely biased against animals.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the article you said that human lives were priceless but animal lives have monetary value, but I would argue that there is a degree of monetary value in humans' lives, too. There are countless people who are refusing treatment because they can't afford it and health insurance doesn't cover it. But I see where you're coming from and I definitely agree that animals' lives aren't perceived as important as humans'. While I don't outwardly condemn it because I believe everyone should be allowed to do leisurely activities at their will, I don't agree with hunting for sport.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really great argument! While I am an animal lover, I don't think about things like this as much as I probably should. Your comparison of human executions to animal ones is especially interesting, and how we treat the lives of both.
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