{"id":57164,"date":"2025-11-22T01:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T06:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=57164"},"modified":"2025-11-21T10:28:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T15:28:50","slug":"qotd-the-value-of-a-human-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2025\/11\/22\/qotd-the-value-of-a-human-life\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: The value of a human life"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QotD-thumbnail-400x400.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right; padding: 0px 0px 10px 25px\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QotD-thumbnail-400x400.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-48672\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QotD-thumbnail-400x400.png 400w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QotD-thumbnail-400x400-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QotD-thumbnail-400x400-50x50.png 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>Once, passing a second-hand bookstore, I spotted in its window a book I very much wanted to acquire. Knowing the bookseller, I dashed into his shop, grabbed the book and, while advancing towards him at the cash desk, exclaimed that I had been willing to kill for it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;How much?&#8221; I asked, catching my breath.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Eighty dollars,&#8221; he replied, nonchalantly.<\/p>\n<p>I told him I could not possibly pay that, and sadly released the book from my grip.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; the bookseller observed. &#8220;Thanks to this exercise, we know the value you place on a human life. Less than eighty dollars.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In those days, I think I would have drawn the line at thirty. But to his moral credit and mine, the bookseller and I were finally able to agree on fifty-five dollars (plus sales tax).<\/p>\n<p>David Warren, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidwarrenonline.com\/2020\/05\/14\/virtual-march-for-life\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Virtual March for Life&#8221;, <em>Essays in Idleness<\/em><\/a>, 2020-05-14.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once, passing a second-hand bookstore, I spotted in its window a book I very much wanted to acquire. Knowing the bookseller, I dashed into his shop, grabbed the book and, while advancing towards him at the cash desk, exclaimed that I had been willing to kill for it. &#8220;How much?&#8221; I asked, catching my breath. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,57,41],"tags":[576],"class_list":["post-57164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-humour","category-quotations","tag-philosophy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-eS0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57164"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99199,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57164\/revisions\/99199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}