The value of a human life

Economics and science have created injustices that legal systems cannot solve. Two looming problems are climate change and ageing societies

Modern economics has become a contest between human values and economic valuations, caused by two conceptual problems. One is the utilitarian principle. The other is the impossibility of quantifying a human life. Economic cost-benefit valuations have corrupted human values, as well as public policies and legal processes.

A good policy, according to the utilitarian principle, benefits the maximum number of people, even if it harms a minority. Utilitarian policies are politically popular because a majority favours them. The utilitarian principle does not protect the rights of marginalised people, whose needs are trampled upon in the march of economic growth. Political and