The Value of a Life; Who is Worth Our Compassion?
What is the dollar value of a human life? For many compassionate and loving people, the answer is always the same, that all life is precious and should be spared at any expense. For others, the value is determined by the positive economic impact they can have on a society. For many others it really depends who we are talking about, as their opinion is based on race, religion, socio-economic status, dependent on the crime committed or whether or not they do drugs. Regardless of what our opinion is, we can all agree that it is our value of the human life that determines how fast we act and to what extent we go to, in order to save the life.
I want you to think for one second about your own life. How far would you go to save it? How much money would you spend of the government's, of your families and of your own to save your life? Would you go to any extent possible with the hope of receiving even one more day, month or year? Now extend that thought to your child. To what extent would you go to to save the life of your child? Would it matter if your child was criminal or drug addict? Given the turmoil in the world these days, I feel I should ask the same question with regards to an immigrant. Should an immigrant be extended the same courteous life saving measures that we wanted for ourselves and our children? If not, why? Are their lives not worth the same as ours? Are you somehow a superior human being? Now let us bring it back a little closer to home. What about a drug addicted criminal of the same race and culture as you? Perhaps one of your neighbors children. Would you expect that they would receive the same life saving measures as you or your children would receive? Does your answer here depend on whether or not you know the family? Does it depend on the nationality of the addict? Does it make a difference if the addict is committing crime or not? If so which offences de-value this life?
In cities all across North America, communities are struggling with this very answer. What is the value of the life of a drug addict? Is it worth it for our communities to try and save these lives or is it easier to simply watch them die? It seems that depending on what drugs are being taken or whether or not the addict is on a northern native reserve makes a huge impact on this decision. Society wittingly or not, has drawn their lines in the sand and simply put a price tag on the lives of addicts all across North America. It has taken most jurisdictions at least a year to even consider inexpensive life saving measures such as naloxone for front line workers. This $100 drug could be administered by anyone and save countless lives however most jurisdictions are still dragging their feet recounting bureaucratic red tape or budget cuts as the reason for the delays. How many 'people' have to die before we decide that an addicts life is worth the effort. Is it only now that the fentanyl epidemic is reaching it's grip into the homes of upper middle class families and not just the streets of our urban centers, that we finally have woken up to the realization that this is not just a 'junkie' issue but rather one that affects us all. Had it not been for that fact would we of simply stood by while thousands of addicts simply perished without anyone even caring?
We see this de-humanization of the addict in other areas of society as well. With rural crime on the rise here in Alberta, I continue to hear about farmers looking to arm themselves in order to prevent falling victim to a property crime. I have heard that some of them have started carrying their hunting weapons with them at all times and some neighbors have looked to armed patrols of their yards and fields. Rural crime has always been an issue with understaffed RCMP detachments coupled with trusting farmers and an abundance of expensive equipment. Clearly there is no easy answer to prevent or deter crime in these areas. The farmer frustration is completely justified and understandable however where do you draw the line between taking a life and making an insurance claim? What is that drug addict's life worth to you? Is it worth the tool chest from the back of your pick-up? Is it perhaps worth the pick-up itself? What if it was a bobcat or tractor? Are either of these worth killing for? Is filing an insurance claim for being a victim of a property crime really that difficult that it is worth taking another human life? Or is it that you simply do not consider addict criminals to be human at all? It does not matter at all to you that society has let these people down (in a lot of cases teenagers and adolescence). We have discarded them like leapers and left them to fend for themselves. Rather than admitting that we as a society have failed, we force them to survive by committing crimes and then we lock them up. We offer limited access to support and rehabilitation and prefer to spend 5 times as much on incarcerating them than rehabilitating them. To many of the farmers, this is not their problem, these are not people to them but rather low-life scum walking the earth to make their lives difficult.
We see this de-humanization in many other segments of society as well. It is not just addicts either. In many Northern communities we continue to de-value natives as well. Many natives are living in third world conditions and mental health issues run rampant. As a society we continue to just ignore the problem with the hope that it will eventually just go away. What are we hoping for, that they all just die and we don't have to do anything then? Are we just waiting for all the 'junkies' to just die as well and then we will not have to worry about them anymore? As a society we have to really re-assess how we view these vulnerable people in our communities. Every one of them is in fact somebody's child, mother, father, daughter or son. Are their lives worth less than our own? Are these'people' worth saving?
