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Holly Hunter

Mrs. Bowyer

Expos Period 2

3 November 2016

How We Should Value Life

Every year people are impacted by natural disasters, accidents, or simple just the

results of aging. Who is to say those lives werent worth anything, such as after 9/11?

No one has the right to tell someone they have to stay alive, likewise, no one has the

right to claim there time is up. All life is valuable and should be valued, not for racial or

socioeconomic status, but for how much they impact other people's lives.

November 11, 2001 was a tough time for many people, and the government took

it upon themselves to try and help the mourning families financially. Specifically,

Congress was to help, creating the safety net (Ripley 58) for the families of victims.

The fund was to ensure that they maintained something resembling their current

standard of living- whether they got assistance from private insurance or the

government (Ripley 58). Not everyone received the financial support however,

according to the rules of the fund, the families had to subtract all the money they were

already getting from other sources, away from the starting amount the government set

to see what they would really receive (Ripley 57). Some families actually received

nothing for their loved ones, have that be a child or significant other. Its wrong for the

government to place a dollar value on a human life, especially if the money given is

based on your job you had, and if that person you lost had a poor job they became
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worth nothing in the eyes of the government. This needs to change we cannot allow the

government to judge our worth based upon a job.

Where is the value of life for the injured? They should be aloud, at some point, to

decide they don't want to keep fighting for this life. We already have laws for

competence in patients, so why after years of them struggling in life would we continue

to deny them the right to end their life. Ending their life when only the advances in the

medical field are keeping them alive such as receiving multiple surgeries very often, or

having care givers do everything for you including helping you go to the bathroom and

every day tasks. Roger Ebert is a significant example of someone who fought, and

should be aloud to stop fighting. The point is that he tried to overcome his hardship he

valued his life and others, and if we had to assign value to a life that should be how we

do it -- based upon the goodness of their heart. Ebert has struggled to stay alive and

because of his relentless effort he should be aloud after all he has gone through to give

up the fight and rest in peace for the first time in a long time. Ebert expresses that

fighting for life can have benefits and at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we

have done something to make others happier, and something to make ourselves a little

bit happier, that is about the best we can do (Jones 73). As Ebert fought for his life he

didn't want pity, he wanted people to be moved by him, he wanted people to see how

happy he was making a difference in their lives and bringing awareness to the fact that

events happen, but you need to push through to see what life can bring you.

Will, a paraplegic, had a similar yet different view on life. In You Before Me

Directed by Thea Sharrock, Lou, a caregiver, tries to help Will gain happiness in his life

again. The two eventually fall in love, but at the end of the 6 months he promised his
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parents he would live, he still decides to end his life, regardless that he and Lou are

happy. Wills decision can be justified with a quote from the play Hamlet by

Shakespeare which argues by a sleep to say we end/ the heartache, and the thousand

natural shocks/ that flesh is heir to (Shakespeare 65), proving that death is the only

way to end the hurt that Will can never get back. Will fought for as long as he could, but

in the end as Ebert had, gave up the fight because nothing could give him his life back,

he understood that he was hurting people, but it was the only way to stop his own

suffering. We should allow people to have this option, we cannot force people to stay

alive with a life that's so painful. Anyone should be allowed to end their life especially if it

means very poor value of life for that individual. That does not mean that their life has

no value, but it does mean that they should not be forced to go on if the value of their

life has been stripped away from them.

Every person on the planet has value to their life. You could be hurt, an everyday

person, or terminally ill. No one has the right to assign value to a person. The value

should not be based on the amount of money you can pay or the amount of money you

make. Value is based on how you are as a person. No one can take or determine your

value, Its up to you to determine how much youre worth.

Word Count: 889

Works Cited

Jones, Chris. Roger Ebert: The Essential Man. Esquire 16 Feb. 2010. Web.
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Me Before You. Dir. Thea Sharrock. Perf. Emilia Clarke, Sam Clafin. MGM, 2016. DVD.

Ripley, Amanda. What Is a Life Worth? Time 11 Feb. 2002. 22-27. Print

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Act III, Sc. 1: Hamlets To be, or not to be soliloquy