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How should we
measure
the value of human life?
''I:FE
is infinitely more pre–
cious now!" exclaimed
Margaret Thatcher–
after escaping the Brighton
bomb.
But not everywhere is life pre–
cious!
"Life is cheap in Mexico," wrote
Bruno Lopez from San Juan Ixhua–
tepec. His remark was in reference
June
1985
to damage pay–
ments for the massive
1984 gas explosion near
Mexico City.
A
grieving widow
couldn't believe her husband's life
was worth only two million pesos
(US$8,800).
In the United States a contract
killer in the Bronx charges $5,000
for a routine assassination. The Ger–
man Democratic Republic may
by
John Ross Schroeder
assess Bonn DM 60 ,000
(US$20,000) for a political pris–
oner from behind the Iron Cur–
tain. A British judge awards a farm
father
:E
6,000 damages for a son
kiUed by falling power cables.
A
surrogate mother charges an
agreed-upon sum of money to bear
a child for an infertile wife. A med-
ie charges a young woman a fixed ,.
fee to abort her unborn baby. Kid-
f
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