Ultimate Price: The Value We Place on Life
Howard Steven Friedman
University of California Press (May 2020)
Why unequal valuing of human life should never lead to the denial of human rights
The value people place on human life has varied (often significantly) at least since Greeks climbed into their boats and sailed to Troy.
I agree with Howard Steven Friedman: “All lives are precious, but they are not priceless. Rather, they are priced all the time. Often the price tags are unfair. We need to ensure that when lives are priced, that they are priced fairly so that so that human rights and human lives are always protected.”
He wrote this book in order to share what he has learned from wide and deep research as well as reflection during his quest for answers to two separate but related questions: “What are the various methods used for valuing human life?” and, “How to understand these methods after they have been separated from their technical language”? He includes Notes on Pages 179-211 and shares what he learned in this volume.
It remains for each reader to determine what is of greatest interest and value to them. That is, the value they place on the material. My rating correctly indicates that I think highly of Ultimate Price. It sharpened my focus on so much of U.S. history. For example, the role that slavery played throughout the 17th and 18th century when slaves were viewed and valued as [begin italics] property [end italics], not as human beings. The 13th Amendment (abolition of slavery) did not prevent or eliminate the Jim Crow era and segregation. The 20th Amendment (voting rights for women) was not passed until 1920, 131 years after the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Even today, women are victimized by countless and substantial inequities with regard to personal growth and professional development.
Thank you, Howard Steven Friedman, for providing invaluable information, insights, and counsel that will help those who read your book to have a wider and deeper impact on efforts NOT to value all people equally; rather, to value all people fairly “so that human rights and human lives are always protected.”
That aspiration is more urgent now than at any prior time that I can recall.