'Roger Ebert: The Essential Man'

Hundreds of thousands of dollars go into representing the value of a human life. The government continuously hands money to civilians who lost a loved one and struggle to maintain a lifestyle. Putting a dollar value on human life is without a doubt inhumane, but valuing life as much as possible is the most important aspect to discovering human value. Reading an interview titled, “Roger Ebert: The Essential Man [Excerpts]” by Chris Jones, I came to an appalling but realistic conclusion that sickness changes the way a person values life. Ebert, in the interview states, “I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find out.” He got incredibly sick and was on the verge of death and had finally realized how precious life and happiness was (paragraph 34). Suffering and illness impacts the way a person profits from life. Coming from my own personal experiences with multiple family members suffering from cancer or other life-threatening diseases, they end up valuing life much more after being diagnosed. The ironic thing is that after they heal, they go back to taking advantage of life’s most precious moments. Another article titled, "What Is a Life Worth?" by Amanda Ripley, explains how the government puts a dollar value on the lives of humans. She states, "But every award will be based on a cold calculus, much the way

Life is precious, the time you carry with your loved ones is precious. People take love and care and life for granted daily and I am not perfect so I am at fault for this as well. The way life is valued is indeed determined by sickness, health, money, wealth, and difficult challenges. Life changes who you are and how you develop; being human, people carry many characteristics that make them who they are today. The value of life is different for everyone and as long as you are happy with your life at the end of your journey, then you have valued