What’s a Human Being Worth?
Google Image |
The human body, composed mostly of water, plus trace amounts of silicon, manganese, fluorine, copper, zinc, arsenic, and aluminum, is worth about $1. If you were able to include your skin, it would add about $4.50, according to the web site ThoughtCo.com, bumping the total value up to about $5.
If you were able to separately sell your body
parts, such as the heart, liver, etc., you’re looking at up to $45 million,
according to counterplus.com, another such web site.
Most rational people, of course, would not
attempt to put a price on a human body, though many say that’s all there is to
a human life, and many who advocate for or are indifferent about violence and
hate seem to adhere to this view.
Capacity to Save Ourselves
So, if the dollar approach is not a rational calculation
of the worth of a human being, what is? I believe the Christian view, though
played out politically and socially in radically different ways, is the wisest.
I believe it has the capacity to save us from ourselves.
The Christian view, based on Scripture and
church teaching, sees humans as possessing an innate, God-given dignity. Many
religions, including my own Catholic faith, base their social-justice doctrines,
and many of their moral principles, on this idea.
“The Catholic
Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the
human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society,” says the
web page of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “This belief is the
foundation of all the principles of our social teaching.
“We believe that every person is precious, that people are
more important than things, and that the measure of every institution is
whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.”
Joseph Bernadin Google Image |
Nonetheless, the official doctrine of most Christian faiths,
including Catholicism, promotes respect for all. In the case of Catholicism, it
accounts for its positions on abortion and assisted suicide, capital
punishment, help for the poor, immigration policy, human trafficking and war.
It’s true that many Catholics, as well as people of other
faiths, ignore all or part of their church’s teaching, especially when applying
the teaching to politics. The public perception of the church’s teaching
differs widely as well.
In the case of abortion, for instance, I don’t believe the
Catholic Church’s position is based on the desire “to control women’s bodies.”
I also don’t believe its rejection of gay marriage reflects contempt for gay
people. In both instances, I believe the church is caught between what
Scripture and traditional moral theology teaches and contemporary views on
right and wrong.
Conform to Contemporary Views?
Will the church change its positions to conform to
contemporary views? I don’t know, but I believe it should on the one hand, be
open to doing so and on the other, do so only after thoughtful and prayerful
analysis of Scriptural texts – using all the modern analytical tools available
– and how those texts can be applied to modern life. It shouldn’t be merely the
perceived need to conform to contemporary thinking.
This is a big problem for religion because few people appear
to be motivated by either Scripture or church teaching.
As I’ve mentioned before in
these blogs, I like the metaphor popularized by the late Cardinal Joseph
Bernardin, archbishop of Chicago, who at a 1983 lecture at Fordham University
in New York described “right-to-life” as a “seamless garment,” like the one
worn by Jesus at his execution.
“Those who defend the right to life of the weakest among us (human fetuses) must be equally visible in support of the quality of life of the powerless among us: the old and the young, the hungry and the homeless, the undocumented immigrant and unemployed worker.
"(That) quality-of-life posture (should be) translated into specific political and economic positions on tax policy, employment generation, welfare policy, nutrition and feeding programs, and health care.”
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