Question:

“If all humans have the reason to live, why are there people who don’t experience to ‘live’ at
all?” (E.g. aborted babies, miscarriages, short-lived babies with fatal syndromes)

Introduction and Relevance of the Question

Nearly all people in this physical world believes that every life has its reason; a reason
that translates into the metaphysical concept of purpose which gives people the direction and
roles to act on in this story called ‘life’. I am a post-adolescent individual who experiences
mental depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), anger management issues and
the socially prejudicial depressive repercussion of suicidal tendency. With all these appalling
qualities, I am usually considered as a dysfunctional entity in the society. And with the growing
trend of ‘mental health awareness’, I am usually considered as a subject of serious attention and
‘help’. I’ve always wanted to end my life as soon as possible because I always feel inoperable to
the demands of the world to be ‘mentally fine’ and holistically beautiful. I’ve always considered
that death is the only ‘happy’ in this world and achieving it may give me the first smile I’ve
always dreamed of. And because the society wants to do something to ‘save’ me, they always
refute my claim and advocate the cliché that “all lives has its own reason”; as if committing
suicide is not a reason or an end goal. The society, with nearly all the people, reaches out to me
and tries to convince me to ‘survive’ amidst my illness, hoping they could do something relevant;
and with all honesty, I’m tired hearing all the assertions and reasons.
With all this, I came up with the question above that would qualify the ‘meaning of life’
itself. And this question really made me ponder on the essence of it because I myself gets to live
a life that I want to lose when there are people who doesn’t get to live at all. This question
suddenly became very significant and important to me because it tries to give an evocative
response to everything. Although it aims to question the refutation by most people, it’s a double
edged sword; for it will make me the insensitive party of the argument but it will also point out
the validity of the claim that “all humans have its own reason to live”. What is the reason behind
the life that’s barely lived? Why live if you will just die before you even know you’re living? Are
these lives that are meant to die, meaningful at all?

Different Perspectives in Answering the Question

As a Christian, I’ve grown up valuing life so much that I’ve spent my developing years
making the most out of it. And I’ve stayed with that perspective all throughout my life because
nearly all of my teachers and my parents taught me to do so. It is written in the Bible, as they say.
They’ve always explained to me and to everyone that life is a gift that must be valued whatever
the cause. It is stated in Deuteronomy30:19-20 that,
“19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set
before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children
may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.
For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your
fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
The passage expresses the assertion that life is something that is chosen for the reason
that we should love Him, for He is life Himself and the life given will be passed on to future
generation. Hence, in the context of Christian faith, life is something God gave for us to exercise
our freedom to love and Praise Him and to benefit the generations that will come after us.
Moreover, the Christian faith also asserts that God is life and the life we have now is the greatest
gift that He has ever given. Concisely, the life we have now isn’t technically ours but of His’.
Therefore, we have no right to take it away from ourselves because it is not ours in the first
place. Also, the assertion imposes that we need to make use of our lives by doing the things He
wants us to do. Our purpose. So, the main ‘purpose’ of life for the Christian faith is that to serve
and love the Giver of everything and to make sure that He receives the Praise that graciously
deserve.
“But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that
my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” (Exodus 9:16)
The purpose asserted by the Christian faith is a predetermined plan by God. It is stated in
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8,
“1 Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses. 2 He sets the
time for birth and the time for death, the time for planting and the time for pulling up, 3 the time
for killing and the time for healing, the time for tearing down and the time for building. 4 He sets
the time for sorrow and the time for joy, the time for mourning and the time for dancing, 5 the
time for making love and the time for not making love, the time for kissing and the time for not
kissing. 6 He sets the time for finding and the time for losing, the time for saving and the time for
throwing away, 7 the time for tearing and the time for mending, the time for silence and the time
for talk. 8 He sets the time for love and the time for hate, the time for war and the time for
peace.”
In the said clause, it is claimed that life itself is a plan and is planned by God for each and
every one. The time for everything is set according to His plan. Hence, everything and everyone
that He created has a plan and was set by Him in accordance to His will. This particular
statement proves that God is omniscient. And with this, the idea that everyone’s life has a reason
is reinforced.
However, there are no exact verses written in the scriptures that considered the reason or
purpose for the unborn lives. Although the scriptures expounded the fact that all are created
according to His image and everyone is directed to His purpose, none talked about the lives of
the aborted babies and short-lived and virtually insignificant lives of newborn babies with a fatal
syndrome or illness. However, the Bible did assure that miscarried babies are ‘alive’ and the
reason for the miscarriage will pay the life for life and therefore is expressing the significance of
the lives of the unborn children as it is written in Exodus 21:22-23.
Conclusively, with the Christian perspective, I cannot deliberately base my answer to the
question with the ideas solely presented because I am a Christian myself and I believe that God’s
purpose and reason for the different lives are behind human cognition and therefore cannot be
answered based on what is understood by the human mind. The passages provided above only
established the religious context where I am coming from wherein I try to ask the reason of life
in respect to the purpose of God. But then again, the facts above are one perspective to look at.
Now, if we will look at the perspective of some philosophical concepts, the validity of the
question is at stake.
First, if we would analyze the position of the question about the human life, we could
infer that the question’s context is rooted on shallow ecology and religious prospect. Shallow
ecology or the reasoning of it is based on an anthropocentric approach which focuses on human
significance above any other creature/organisms. Human purpose, if viewed on the perspective
of shallow ecology, is something that is substantial and regards life as something universally
essential. Religion, for an instance, is a social force rooted on the anthropocentric approach
which states that humanity is created for a much greater purpose than animals and plant
organisms. Hence, the religious explanation on the purpose of life is biased towards a more
humanistic approach.
Is the unhatched embryo in the Filipino cuisine of balut an example of a meaningless
life?
This question doesn’t generally pass into the minds of the people who eat it because the
society is rooted on the anthropocentric basis; hence, believing that any life forms that are
‘under’ the human form are basically trivial and negligible when regarded with ‘life purpose’.
Moreover, if we would analyze now the statement using the ecocentrism approach and
deep ecology, the essence of human life is merely significant. Ecocentrism is the exact opposite
of anthropocentrism wherein it focuses more on the diverse mechanisms around the ecology and
the nature, which the human is part, rather than the human centered perspective of it which
believes that humans are the lone bearers of intrinsic values. Moreover, deep ecology looks on a
macro perspective and evenhanded cycle of life which explains the ecological purpose of human
life. Humans that are born alive have the same purpose with those of the dogs that are born
likewise; and same goes to the human lives that weren’t able to live and to the dogs in the same
situation.
On the other hand, we could also question the validity of the statement by qualifying the
concepts of ‘being alive’ and ‘life’ itself. Unlike Christians and other religious people alike who
believes that life starts at conception, most atheists or non-sectarian groups don’t recognize life
unless it breathes air on the outside world. This particular perspective divide causes a widespread
and continuing debate on the legality of abortion.
With all this, the concept of life is would still be indefinable if we would try to explain
the said concept through the rationalization of those who has prejudgment and personal ideology
and belief. Moreover, with the different views on the definitions and limitations, the concept life
is not considered by any to be an absolute truth, which eventually blurs out different social
measures of being alive.
Science is considered by many to be universally true because of the provided facts and
empirical knowledge it delivers; and if we were to look at the concept of life through the lens of
the microscope, we would arrive at an idea nearly the same with the ecocentric or the deep
ecological approach.
 Life is when the cells starts to reproduce. This is the main fundamental claim of
scientists regarding on what is alive and what is not. And with this, the scientific declaration
disproves the assertions of both the non-sectarian and anthropocentricity which are the claims
that life is only when there is respiration and contact on the external world and the claims that
only human lives are the only ones which has an intrinsic value of the essence of life,
respectively.
Correspondingly, the scientific assertion gives validity to the Christian proposition that
life starts at conception and is alive at that very moment the zygote is fertilized. However,
science also supports the ideology of the deep ecology which reduce the anthropocentric
significance of humans. Science depicts that animals and plants as well has life that is as
significant as those of the humans.
Moreover, science also supposes that there is always a biological variation among the
spectrum of organisms. Therefore, biological mechanisms such as pathogenesis or the naturally
occurring diseases are naturally persistent. With this, science supposes that short-lived babies
that had fatal syndromes or miscarried are meant to ‘die’ because of the biological mechanism
their bodies have; which contradicts the beliefs of the Christian principles that everyone has
given a life to live and no one has a ‘guaranteed’ death. Also, this particular idea by the field of
science is the reason why the world is still divided between those who believe in faith and those
who only base their life on proof.
Now if we look at idea of abortion, we would see a more offensive stand for science. The
debate that circles around abortion is essentially concentrated on whether abortion is removing a
conscious and ‘alive’ human form, or just an embryo that undergoes development through the
mother to eventually become human or ‘alive’. To expound the idea, we must first qualify what
exactly consciousness is. For religious groups and faithful individuals, consciousness is an
identity of the soul. However, for science, consciousness is more of a complex result of the
processes and mechanisms inside the brain. Although there is still no valid understanding of what
consciousness is, science have long known that souls do not exist, and the idea is merely a
dogmatic representative for what we now know to be the human brain. And with that assertion,
science believes that there is simply no evidence for the existence of souls, so the idea that
miscarried or aborted babies having soul is an untruthful account. That is how the scientific
world sees things.
In the end, science believes that life begins with the conception but doesn’t integrate the
concept of soul which defines the thought of being alive.
The reasons for living and for everything that happens in the world are concepts that are
created by the human mind. Hence, the abstraction of reasons can’t be explained with a single
perspective and a universally considered truth. Apparently, these reasons try to restrict personal
freedom to die and the destiny to meet it.
And based on the different perspectives provided above, I personally can’t deduce on a
single fixed point. This is because I am a person of religion and at the same time a person of
proof and rationality. Also, I am suicidal; which means life to me is something that is
melancholic. Hence, I can’t make a clear resolution to my question. However, with the given
standpoints of the different aspects that define the totality of life, I would construe to the view
that it is a phenomenon which provides everything and everyone the chance to exist in this
metaphysical place called world.
Nevertheless, my depressive and suicidal state weren’t altered by those claims; but I
eventually came up to an understanding that life isn’t just about why you breathe and how we
feel but more of ‘we are existing’. Life, in my opinion, is a state of consciousness with biological
and metaphysical references. You need to breathe to subsist and you need to exist to breathe in
the first place. Hence, life is a correlation of concepts, a correlation that seeks to provide reason
beyond human cognition for the essence of the human existence.