The value of a human life (and why abortion, economics, pulling the plug and triage)

[Autumnlicious]

But now it seems that you have abandoned the idea of potentiality for a standard of comparing the actual achieved level or current level of development. The latter seems much different than the former and the analysis for each would probably give different results.

As we cannot know the future, nor precisely chart out the actual worth of a human being at any time, this graph is functionally useless but for what I meant to communicate - that people are worth more or less over time due to lack of complete growth/degeneration of mental facilities and physical body (as in age).

What about other sapient beings do you consider on the same rights as human beings?(possible hipothetical question)

As sapience implies wisdom, which is a component of rational thought, sure. However, their value can be less or greater when compared to another person.

I was talking about rights, not talking about value, to me any definition that gives a lower value to all sapient beings in comparison to other is abhorrent

Rights are only accorded to those who can understand them or given to a third party in lieu of that individual whom will take them back when they can understand them. Sapient animals who cannot understand are accorded no rights - the welfare of those animals however falls to their human guardians as the welfare responsibilities would fall to the parents of a severely mentally disabled child.