Man’s Inhumanity to Man

Abstract

All aspects of intensive care — intensive coronary care, intensive post-operative care, post-traumatic intensive care, and so on — are justified on the assumption that human life is valuable and that this value cannot be measured in terms, for example, of cost. Similar exertions are not expended on what might be called subhuman species unless a particular value has been placed on them — usually a monetary value when dealing, say, with a racehorse with stud potential, or a trained dolphin with entertainment potential, and sometimes a scientific value, when a laboratory animal's continued survival is thought to justify extraordinary measures.