How Valuable Is Human Life?

In some cases, people say that they have embraced certain "values," but their words do not necessarily translate into action. For example, Institute For Global Ethics polled representatives from 40 countries. Forty percent chose "reverence for live as being among the top five "most important values.

However, what happens in actual practice? Industrialized nations certainly have the resources to eliminate much human suffering. But a book written by Carol Bellamy, exectutive director fo the United Nations Children's Fund, noted in 1998 that malnutrition "plays a role in more than half of the nearly 12 million deaths each year of children under five in developing countries, a proportion unmatched since the Black Death ravaged Europe in the 14th century." Such reports are alarming to anyone who cherishes human life. " Yet, observes Bellamy, "The worldwide crisis of malnutrition has stirred little public alarm, despite substantial and growing scientific evidence of the danger. More attention is lavished on the gyrations of world stock markets than on malnutrition's vast destructive potential - or on the equally powerful benefits of sound nutrition."

A curiously skewed view of life is evident in the medical community. As recently as the early 1970's, a baby born after just 23 weeks in the womb has almost no chance of survival. Today, perhaps up to 40 percent of such premature babies can survive. In view of this, how ironic it is that worldwide an estimated 40 to 60 million abortions occur every year! The majority of these abortions are performed on fetuses just weeks younger thatn the premature infants doctors struggle to keep alive! Does not the above suggest that great moral confusion prevails?

Next time: Needed - A Moral Compass