The value of life

I've been vacationing, thus the longish period in between blog posts. Even though I was more than certain I would be returning to the blog writing about one of the hottest events of the year (and the day), I will have to get back to the U.S. presidential election later. Recent events in my life have gotten me into thinking about something else entirely.

For some reason, the last days of my holiday saw quite a lot of death in the animal kingdom, both domestic as well as in local wildlife. One particular event stuck to my mind, and I doubt I will be forgetting about it any time soon. While driving on a road in the countryside, there was a family of birds that suddenly decided to start crossing the road just ahead of us – just like the ones in the picture above. Luckily, there was enough distance left for us to step on the brakes safely and in a controlled manner so we could stop before hitting the birds. Unluckily, the moronic blockhead who was coming from the opposite direction and appeared from behind the upward slope but a second after us stopping did not bother to do the same.*

Two of the chicks they hit were killed almost instantly. I am glad the rest of the flock, including the two parents survived to live another day.

The other driver having no reaction of even attempting to slow down before or after the incident gave me the initial reaction of wanting to turn the car around, forcing them to stop, and then bashing their teeth in. Even at the moment of writing this, I think that is what they would still deserve. But as you can probably guess, against my instincts, we simply drove to the side of the road to make sure the birds would not be left to suffer, and then were on our way. Even though the whole situation still makes my blood boil, I know that looking back at that moment the decision was the correct one.

Whereas I would feel no moral remorse, should the other driver meet some kind of violence or misery, I know that I myself acting as an active participant in the situation would have just invited problems into my own life, most likely in the form of some kind of legal action.

But most of all, this got me into thinking about the classic philosophical questions of the value we have and hold for life. Should life always be valued, and is one kind of life more valuable than some other kind? Clearly, the other driver did not find the lives of those birds very valuable. On the other hand, if there would have been a man or a woman crossing the road, I am willing to bet on that they would have stopped the car. Judicially speaking, that is understandable, since the way they acted did most likely not break any laws, but hitting a person would have been a whole another deal. I always found legislation to be a terrible construct to base one's values and morals on, though.

I personally cannot sign off on the statement that all life is equal or equally valuable. The whole idea to me is actually quite sickening. Would you value a mass murderer or a serial rapist as much as a regular member of society, let's say a decent family man or woman working a regular job to make the ends meet? If that is too easy of a question, we could make things more interesting by asking if you'd find the life of a murderer more valuable than that of a bird? How about the life of a human being when in comparison to other species?

The questions above are not easy or even straightforward ones (well, at least not all of them). Still, judging solely from the actions of that driver that day, I can tell that I would much more likely have preferred spending time with those two birds they ran over than with them. In all likelihood, our morals and values would not have been similar enough that we could have enjoyed each other's company.

*To clarify, the driver did not have a car or any other kind of traffic following them. The events occurred in broad daylight amidst good driving conditions, and braking would not have posed a risk to the safety of anyone.