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Full Idea
It is not wrong to kill because of the intrinsic value of life or consciousness, or because people have a right to life, but because we shouldn't reduce worthwhile life, or thwart someone's desire to live, or inflict fear or pain.
Gist of Idea
What matters is not intrinsic value of life or rights, but worthwhile and desired life, and avoidance of pain
Source
Jonathan Glover (Causing Death and Saving Lives [1977], §8.1)
Book Ref
Glover,Jonathan: 'Causing Death and Saving Lives' [Penguin 1982], p.113
A Reaction
This is a utilitarian view. It is not clear how we decide 'worthwhile' without a notion of intrinsic value. It is unclear why this desire is respected if many other desires are not.
| 20243 | Human beings are not majestic, either through divine origins, or through grand aims [Nietzsche] |
| 2893 | In every age the wisest people have judged life to be worthless [Nietzsche] |
| 2894 | Value judgements about life can never be true [Nietzsche] |
| 2895 | The value of life cannot be estimated [Nietzsche] |
| 18308 | A philosopher fails in wisdom if he thinks the value of life is a problem [Nietzsche] |
| 18322 | When we establish values, that is life itself establishing them, through us [Nietzsche] |
| 18321 | To evaluate life one must know it, but also be situated outside of it [Nietzsche] |
| 23748 | The sacred in every human is their expectation of good rather than evil [Weil] |
| 20282 | The sanctity of a human life depends either on being of our species, or on being a person [Singer] |
| 4661 | What matters is not intrinsic value of life or rights, but worthwhile and desired life, and avoidance of pain [Glover] |