What We Mean When We Talk About the "Value of Human Life"

At Evolution Blog, Jason Rosenhouse offers "Replies to Smith and Klinghoffer," meaning Wesley and myself on assisted suicide versus the idea of life's sacredness. Rosenhouse insists that "Human origins have no implications for the value of human life."

The source of his confusion seems to be that in writing about the "value of human life," Rosenhouse and I are talking about two different things. I'm referring to the idea that a human life per se has an exceptional value, a sacredness, which de...