ABSTRACT
The idea that life has intrinsic value goes with the idea that life is sacred, hence people who deny that life has intrinsic value sometimes do so because according to them the idea of sanctity is an outmoded and empty shibboleth. The statement can also be impersonal and philosophical and then it means that human life has no transcendent purpose, no purpose outside itself. Roughly speaking there are four possible ways of explaining the sanctity or non-sanctity of life: three religious and one secular or humanistic. People generally wish to go on living even when life is hard and unhappy, and Mrs Foot gives examples: life in captivity, life with a prolonged illness, and life with perpetual shortages of food and shelter.
