At the age of five, I began shaping and formulating my moral compasses without even knowing.
My youngest sister was born severely disabled with a life expectancy of less than a year. At this age, I did not realize how the ethical decisions I was making with my parents, in regard to my sister, were actually shaping and formulating the way I make decisions today.
I believe in preserving and maximizing the quality of life for an individual.
I believe that each person has the ability to live a happy and fulfilling life. I believe that no person should ever endure pain or suffering, but when there is suffering, which will undeniably occur, each person should have the opportunity to preserve what happiness they have.
Quality of life should not be measured quantitatively; questions on the quality of life cannot be answered in simple "yes" or "no" answers.
Quality of life is situational. Each person has their own limits and their own values in which they believe. Although some situations may seem similar on the outside, each is different; which is why I also strongly believe in humanism. I believe that each person is a whole and has their own dignity. We, as humans, are not just charts or numbers - we are individuals with our own intrinsic thoughts and feelings. We know ourselves best, and to know others, we must know their likes, hatred, aspirations, and goals in life.
A person's past, their own beliefs, and their surroundings greatly inhibit the decisions they make.
I know my outlook on life is much different than my neighbor's, so when speaking about the quality of life through a humanistic eye, one should look at a situation in the eyes of the person being affected. We should aim to not disrupt the integrity of others, and that means not making decisions about them before fully understanding them. No person is allowed to put a dollar amount on another person's life, so no person should have the ability to quantify another's life.
Watching my sister in relation to other children her age made me realize how hard her life truly was, but more importantly that quality of life is not a scale.
Seeing and hearing the struggles of others at her age, such as fighting to make friends or to make the baseball team, at first made me angry. These people did not realize how fortunate they truly were. Fortunately, through my family, I learned that each person deals with their own struggles. I now know that each person lives a different life and that what may seem like an issue to me, may not be an issue to others.
When making moral decisions I have to remind myself to think of these days. I have to remember to be humanistic and fair. I have to respect others and not compare myself to them.
