{"id":387,"date":"2010-10-04T12:51:16","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T12:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html"},"modified":"2010-10-04T12:51:16","modified_gmt":"2010-10-04T12:51:16","slug":"temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Temple Grandin and the Equal Value of Human Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I titled a post last week, “Does Every Human Life Have Value?<\/a>”
\nAnd I wrote my answer. In a word, yes. But my husband pointed out that I could
\nhave taken it a step further and asked, “Is every human life equally<\/i> valuable?” Again, my answer is
\nyes. But perhaps that’s a harder case to make. <\/p>\n

How do I compare
\nthe life of an infant who dies in the NICU to an 80-year old professor who
\nwrote seventeen books? How do I compare the life of a 50-year old who left his
\nfamily in ruins and a 5-year old who happily goes to school in the morning and
\nplays with her friends in the afternoon? <\/p>\n

I could take an economic approach and value those lives
\nbased upon how much money they pump into (or drain from) the global financial
\nsystem. Or I could take a more emotional approach and try to measure the
\nhappiness each life offers to his community. <\/p>\n

But I don’t believe that the value of human life is
\ndetermined through these measures. <\/p>\n

\"templegrandin.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Over the weekend, we watched Temple Grandin<\/a><\/i>, an excellent HBO movie that portrays the remarkable life of
\nthe title character. Temple Grandin<\/a> has autism. She is a world-renowned
\nspeaker, a professor, and she has transformed conditions in cattle
\nslaughterhouses in order to make them more humane and more profitable. One of
\nthe lines repeated throughout the film–by Temple’s mother and by Temple
\nherself–is, “Different, not less.” <\/p>\n

Temple is different. She doesn’t like human touch. She
\ndidn’t talk until she was four. She doesn’t understand communication through
\nfacial expressions. She is terrified of sliding doors. And she can see the
\nworld through the eyes of cattle and use her considerable mental gifts to serve
\nthose animals. <\/p>\n

I’ve written elsewhere (“Who Do I Want Our Daughter to Become<\/a>?”) about people like Temple Grandin, the
\n“exceptional” members of the disability community, the ones who make the
\nheadlines and overcome expectations. She gives us a story that portrays the
\ntruth of the line: “Different, not less.” And yet her story can be extended to
\ncountless lives–to the ones who don’t write books or give speeches or change
\ntechnology or transform industries. Different from one another, not less. <\/p>\n

Our value as people is not something we need to
\nprove–whether by academic achievement, financial prosperity, or a sunny
\ndisposition. Rather, as creatures formed in the image of God, our value is
\nbestowed upon us from the moment of conception. We are valuable because we are
\nhuman. We are valuable because we are God’s beloved. And that means all of us. The inmate on death row. The celebrity in Hollywood. The baby in the hospital. The woman battling cancer. The child with Down syndrome or autism or cerebral palsy or typical genes. All of us are valuable. Equally.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I titled a post last week, “Does Every Human Life Have Value?” And I wrote my answer. In a word, yes. But my husband pointed out that I could have taken it a step further and asked, “Is every human life equally valuable?” Again, my answer is yes. But perhaps that’s a harder case to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-down-syndrome","category-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nTemple Grandin and the Equal Value of Human Life - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Temple Grandin and the Equal Value of Human Life - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I titled a post last week, “Does Every Human Life Have Value?” And I wrote my answer. In a word, yes. But my husband pointed out that I could have taken it a step further and asked, “Is every human life equally valuable?” Again, my answer is yes. But perhaps that’s a harder case to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-04T12:51:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/templegrandin-thumb-200x293-18242.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Temple Grandin and the Equal Value of Human Life - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Temple Grandin and the Equal Value of Human Life - Thin Places","og_description":"I titled a post last week, “Does Every Human Life Have Value?” And I wrote my answer. In a word, yes. But my husband pointed out that I could have taken it a step further and asked, “Is every human life equally valuable?” Again, my answer is yes. But perhaps that’s a harder case to…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-10-04T12:51:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/templegrandin-thumb-200x293-18242.jpg"}],"author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html","name":"Temple Grandin and the Equal Value of Human Life - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/templegrandin-thumb-200x293-18242.jpg","datePublished":"2010-10-04T12:51:16+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-04T12:51:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/templegrandin-thumb-200x293-18242.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/templegrandin-thumb-200x293-18242.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/temple-grandin-and-the-equal-value-of-human-life.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Temple Grandin and the Equal Value of Human Life"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}