What is human life worth?
Does every person deserve to be treated with dignity?
What about the elderly, the unborn, or the disabled?
One of the most important ideals America has pursued for 250 years is the belief that all people are equally valuable. Yet, throughout that time our nation has struggled to agree on exactly how to define human equality. After all, we don’t all have equal ability, talent, or intelligence. We’re not all equally healthy or ambitious. We’re not all the same race or ethnicity. In fact, there are many more ways to divide and categorize the American people than there are to unify us as one.
So, how exactly should we define equality? It starts with this: for all people to be equally valuable there must be something about every single one of us that is equally true – something that can never change and thereby deem us invaluable.
The value of every human is the result of qualities beyond what can be seen at first glance. Every single person has profound worth because every single person is just that – a person. Not an animal or a sophisticated biological machine. A human being, created in the image of God.
You and I don’t deserve dignity because we’re the correct height, shape, or color. Regardless of whether someone is young or old, yet to be born, or severely disabled in need of constant care. Every human being has immeasurable worth simply because – as our Constitution says – it’s endowed to us by our Creator.
