Life in terms of biology definition refers to time between a person's births till his or her death. It is the one and only thing that breathes essence of various activities which separates us from inanimate objects. As opined by Heywood and Mullock (2016), there is no definite answer to value of life. Each individual reflects and leads his or her life based on values and ethics which they endear most. Period of living is unique and different from individual to individual. However, value of life has been compromised by emergence of 4 adverse factors that greatly diminished perspective of looking at life. These factors affecting or governing value of life in specific are abortion, suicide, death penalty and life ending. Given assignment contemplates and deals with a moral and legal viewpoint of life. Critical judgment is passed on depending on plus and minus. Finale of this assignment ends by giving a brief conclusion on what is the ideal value to lead a healthy and sustainable living.
Rationale
Life is to be valued at any cost because there is already a certain understanding of what impacts value of life which is created in years of existence. In this study, it is creating segregation in reference to the way an individual decides on value of their life or it is decided by law pertaining to country. Life's not about being diverted towards an individual is completely dependent on others. It is not a crime to commit suicide in UK but there are laws which talk about protecting lives. There are different sets of individual values which make people different from each other and these values help to know whom each person resemble. Value of life is predominant towards a surrounding which is present and how an individual reacts to that surrounding. It is a preexisting phenomenon which introduces different obstacles to gain value in life. This study discusses on different perspective which can dominate value of life. As opined by Heywood and Mullock (2016), it is evident that legal aspects do govern an impact on value of life but it totally depends on an individual how they lead their life.
Discussion
Value of life from legal perspective
As argued by Hamilton (2016), viewpoint of legal perspective isn't biased towards anyone and essence of life under is same for all. Laws and regulations that govern and establish ways of life are few. Among those few laws, most prominent is the Human Rights Act. According to this law, no government or law body can enact right to end an individual's life. Under no circumstances is this allowed. Human Rights Act, in fact, enables government and other authorities to safeguard and protect life of concerned individuals (Ronald and Rand, 2018). Legal aspects of Human Rights Act contain laws governing fairness, dignity, equality, and respect of an individual. As per assignment, reflection on UK has cited government valuing life at 1.8 million pounds. This has highlighted numerous insurance and causes undertaken by respective government to mitigate and safeguard life of citizens of UK. Laws and legislation pertaining to value of life normally borderlines two of its deterring factors. These are death penalty and abortion. Factors that regulate these aspects are mostly social, religion and crime. Abortion is seen as a byproduct of social discrepancies.
Girls child are often killed on birth making them a sign of bane for any family. As mentioned by Hamilton (2016), rules and legislation state that no life can be ended based on social or any injustice. In order to end and put a stop to abortion, various laws have been made and implemented to protect life of an infant. Stress on Human Right Act has been made more aware of a legal institution and authorities have taken subsequent steps to protect infants at birth. Legal perspective predominantly abides by the fact that value of life is imperative right to everyone and any source of harm to life has to be dealt with severe punishment. Prominent among these punishments is the death penalty.
A heinous crime that cannot be excused or pardoned leads to advent of death penalty. Often resorted as the desperate step as well as last resort of law, death penalty ends life of the person committing or accused of such outrageous and heinous acts (Tollman et al. 2016). Over the decades many such cases are cited where value of life towards death penalty has been justified. Death penalty is seen as a way of justification of value of life as life of criminals and murderers alike are put to an end by legal authorities. This perspective of law aims to set an example to criminals and instill an element of fear in them to refrain from doing such heinous acts in future, thus preserving value of life.
Value of life from an individual perspective
Life is the most essential thing which should be valued by different individual but it is being ignored by them. People are in this believed that money and fame is everything which is going to let them live a life with lots of happiness. As stated by Ronald and Rand (2018), there is a priceless price tag which is assigned to life and it may take decades to regain that value of life. God has introduced life once and that needs to be valued forever. Each individual would have a different understanding of how they want to value their life. It is to understand that individuals should not be influenced by other individuals whom themselves do not value life. A person should live for what they love to do and this would help them achieve their goals. Life will create a meaning only when an individual achieves something they wanted to. According to Hamilton (2016), there are certain scenarios which make an individual think what is the type of life they are leading. People tend to cherish and value their life only after they think death is approaching.
This period of life helps an individual to live every moment. There is a book which is written by Lance Armstrong “My Journey Back to Life” which has different significance of life and is about how each individual should enjoy their life to fullest. An individual should never put a price tag in life and this does not differentiate between poor and rich people. Each individual has to work with what they have gained from life and now be greedy about what others have. In today's world, it is significant to work with people who are leading with a form of depression. This with time leads to suicide which is not the best end to life.
Legally suicide is not bound in UK but in perspective of providing value towards life, it is not best value given to life. People tend to perceive them as a burden to another individual whom they live with. Suicide is linked with impulsive behavior. Assuming that an individual act of suicide can be understood in terms of its motives opens some interesting speculations about the role society might play in leading some people to conclude that life is a hopeless situation. Ending of life is most valuable front of one’s existence where people feel to anything and everything they have desired to do and could not fulfill.
Judgment based on above facts explaining whether people should value their life from individual perspective or legal perspective
In today's fast growing world it is significant to understand that there would always be different perspective which would define life. Life is just a biological term which starts from birth and ends with death. According to Tollman et al. (2016), life does not end with its biological definition but there are different perspectives which work in favor and against life. These factors are sometimes governed by different laws and restrictions which are put forward by governing bodies of a country. Moreover, Sweeney et al. (2015) argued that certain individual perspective plays a more pivotal role in impacting value of life. Individual perspective would include an understanding of how different factors which are present in and around an individual's life would be influencing life. As opined by Bishop and Gagne (2018), an individual is more responsible for how they would govern their own life rather than legal institutions. However, Ediebah et al. (2018) contradicted a country’s legal institutions have equal significance in creating value for life. This value is to be fostered by safeguarding life of individuals within legal boundaries.
As mentioned by Heywood and Mullock (2016), there are certain laws which are put forward by UK which talks about safeguarding individual’s life and this law give an individual a right to sue the state if death is related to them. Moreover, Ronald and Rand (2018) contradicted that public authorities have to work towards safety concerning population. It has to work to restrict individuals from being at a place which can introduce them to danger. Individual perspective would align to this legal perspective because all these laws are strictly associated in serving an individual but it is solely dependent on an individual to how they would lead their life that law has to take part in giving it value. It is important to understand that each individual has a different understanding of life and few may lead to a substantial amount of depression which might make them to suicide. Law has to take part to stop all these forms of death. Law also needs to work towards people who are involving themselves in criminal activities which relate to life like abortion which is worst of sins. It is truly an individual's understanding of what is wrong and what is right and thus an individual has to work more towards valuing their life and law can just be a part of it.
Law and personal perspective have significant amount of distinction as circumstances sometimes compel them to act on different sides. Value of life is sole right of individuals that sometimes is affected by governing law. As in case of abortion, Sweeney et al. (2015) stated that individual health of mother is sometimes affected during birth which calls for an act of abortion. Individual perspective allows health of mother to primarily cause of safeguard whereas law contradicts birth of infant as primary focus. According to Bishop and Gagne (2018), law mentioned in above case has to defer from as birth may prove a serious health concern for mother. Similarly in case of suicide individual perspective holds greater value as factors affecting mentality and forcing individuals may be diverse in reasons. Law in such cases cannot preserve value of life as entire functionality depends on individual mindset.
However as contradicted by Ediebah et al. (2018), law to some extent can minimize and negate factors forcing suicide. This can be done by making individuals aware of certain authority helpline numbers and filing complaints with relevance external factors affecting suicides. For example, maybe you value honesty. You believe in being honest wherever possible and you think it’s important to say what you really think. When you don’t speak your mind, you probably feel disappointed in yourself. Ending of one’s life is not a factor of law as Human Rights Act forbids any government or legal entities to participate in actions leading to ending of one’s life. Value of life ending is often related to experiences an individual partakes in during the end phase of life. Law here has no part to play as individuals reflects on his life’s doing and judges whether leading life based on his or her morals and values have been successful or not. As stated by Heywood and Mullock (2016), individual perspective towards life end invokes elements of happiness and regret. Ifs and buts are a common scenario as person thoroughly contemplates ways his life could have changed on doing other activities instead of one he or she had done. However, Ronald and Rand (2018) opined that life-ending can also be related to aspects of law as sometimes during death penalty individual perspective of value of life of criminals and perpetrators changes a lot
Conclusion
From above study, it is evident that biological definition of life is just the start because there is a broad understanding which works towards defining life. Life, as studied above, contains different perspective which is put forward by different individuals and governing body of the country they reside in. UK as a country has worked with different laws which foster a percentage of value to life but it is purely dependent on an individual to shape their own value towards life. If an individual values their life they can achieve anything and everything they have wished to by valuing their life. Law has always helped to restrict people to disvalue their life and even life of other individuals. It is important to safeguard certain rights of an individual which could lead to depletion of value of life. Individuals are totally responsible to indulge law to give value to their life or not.
Reference List
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