[Heronumber0]

Just a though here. All the materials below cost about £5, so where does the value of human life actually lie?

Oxygen (65.0%)
Carbon (18.5%)
Hydogen (9.5%)
Nitrogen (3.2%)
Calcium (1.5%)
Phosphorus 1.0%)
Potassium (0.4%)
Sulfur (0.3%)
Sodium (0.2%
Chlorine (0.2%)
Magnesium (0.1%)
Iodine (0.1%)
Iron (0.1%)
Chromium (trace)
Cobalt (trace)
Copper (trace)
Fluorine (trace)
Manganese (trace)
Molybdenum (trace)
Selenium (trace)
Tin (trace)
Vanadium (trace)
Zinc (trace)

All these materials are not typical of a unique life form.  So does our unique nature lie in a soul and is it possible that the soul has a mass of some sort? Just a thought...

[another_someone]

One of the more expensive materials on Earth are diamonds, yet diamonds are just carbon, which in other forms can be the cheapest of materials.

You don't value a painting by the cost of the paint - it is how it is put together that gives it the value.

[Heronumber0]

You are right, but I was pointing out that human beings ascribe value to themselves and this is not reflected in the chemical composition of their bodies.  Status and all the other elusive things that humans chase have no intrinsic value when you reduce us down to mere chemicals.

[another_someone]

You are right, but I was pointing out that human beings ascribe value to themselves and this is not reflected in the chemical composition of their bodies.  Status and all the other elusive things that humans chase have no intrinsic value when you reduce us down to mere chemicals.

As you say, the component parts of a human being are fairly worthless, like a pile of bricks after a house has been knocked down - they do not represent the value of the house.

But, also as you indicate, value is subjective - humans value humans, but in the grand scheme of the whole universe, humans are but a small insect scurrying about on the surface of an insignificant lump of rock in a vast universe.

[Bored chemist]

What, no calcium?
The composition of a person is just about the same just after they die but the value certainly changes.

[Heronumber0]

Sorry about that BC. Just edited it now.  Why does the value change afterwards?

[another_someone]

Sorry about that BC. Just edited it now.  Why does the value change afterwards?

I think what BC means is that after death a person ceases to be a fully functioning human being, can no longer actively partake in relationships with other human beings, and can no longer be a functional component of a human society.  Thus, as value is a statement of the relationship something or someone has to another, the inability to actively function within a human relationship will inevitably devalue the function that human being can retain in the life of another.

[Bored chemist]

Sorry, I didn't think it needed explaining. A person is more useful, and hence more valuable when they are alive. Certainly, society is prepared to put a lot of effort into keeping people alive so it must value the living more than the dead.