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What is a Life Worth? In conversation with Jenny Kleeman

What is a Life Worth? In conversation with Jenny Kleeman

Nick Spencer speaks with journalist and author Jenny Kleeman. 28/05/2024

The question ‘what is a life worth?’ feels wrong; heretical even. Humans are infinitely valuable, we say. You can’t put a price on a life. And yet we do, every day: for healthcare, for philanthropy, for insurance, for criminal compensation… Indeed, arguably, if we actually care for life, we must.

So, how do we do it? What are we willing to pay for life? How do we calcualate it? Who decides, and on what basis? And what does all this tell us about our (in)humanity?

In this week’s episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Jenny Kleeman about her book The Price of Life.

Buy a copy of the book here.

 


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Nick Spencer

Nick Spencer

Nick is Senior Fellow at Theos. He is the author of The Landscapes of Science and Religion (OUP, 2025), Playing God: Science, Religion and the Future of Humanity (2024), and Magisteria: the entangled histories of science and religion (Oneworld, 2023). Nick is host of the podcast Reading Our Times.

Watch, listen to or read more from Nick Spencer

Posted 28 May 2024

Podcast, Reading Our Times

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