Which death would rate as being worse the murder of a 75+ senior or a child under 10yr?
Though both deaths would are a tragedy which would logically be worse, to have someone who is 78+ years or a child under 10 murdered? If you take into account the senior person they have lived 7 decades or more, they most likely have children, grandchildren and in some cases great grandchildren. To have lived a maybe productive full life to have it all end by violence would seem a shame. However, to be under 10yrs and die by violence you have not really yet lived and been productive in society. The tragic part is all that would be missed and the potential that will never have a chance to be explored. So, is the younger death really worse? I think many will believe it worse because of who the person was and not what he/she actually did. Is it worse that part of the liability of the young of not having been here long enough to impact the world in a major and tangible way might be one of the largest assets, they have not been here to screw over anyone. So is the greater death cheating a senior out of a natural death when they have done everything near right to make it that old, or a child because of the innocence of not having had the chance to do much dirt and the potential to contribute greatly has been stolen from society? To each sets of families it is a given they feel a big loss.
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Previous answer erased by @jenandcolin for being off-topic (it’s 6 am…a little too early for me)
Wow, I apologize, @Hypocrisy_Central . I just realize the huge tangent I went on…
In any case, I still believe the murder of a child under 10 is “worse” than someone over 75 (your initial question). This isn’t because I value the lift of a child more, it’s because that child hasn’t really had a chance to live yet.
Any murder is heinous. The death of a child, though, is the death of hope. It is the death of the dreams you have for your children. It is far worse.
I don’t see a measuring stick for death, murder.
The 78 is just as likely to still have something important to contribute as the 10 year old.
What if the 78 yr. old was an Einstein on the verge of a great, life altering discovery and the 10 year old was going to become a serial killer.
Sure, on the ‘surface’ one might say the loss of a 10 yr. old feels more wrong, but….impossible to say.
If I HAD to choose, I would choose the 78 year old, but only because the little one still has so much of his life to live.
It is impossible to price one life over another, but in terms of our feelings, it is the loss of an innocent shild that ‘appears” to be worse. One aspect that you have not mentioned is the impact of a child’s death on its parents. Really, three lives are ruined.
I’d like to say a death is a death, but what the words of her grandmother ripped my heart out. Christina was the granddaughter of Dallas Green, so it got a little more publicity. Maybe the child represents hope and unfilled dreams?
I hate questions like this.
@marinelife
True, it’s very hard on parents to lose a child, but they can recover, and not only recover, but become better people for it. My wife lost her younger daughter when the child was 16, to brain cancer. That event, and its impact on her, has at least in part, made her the kind, loving, compassionate person with whom I fell in love.
@CaptainHarley
Right. Our suffering can go two ways. We are either rendered more humble and compassionate, or we become bitter and angry.
I have never lost a child, but, through other times of extreme pain I have emerged a better, more loving person for it.
@Coloma
Part of being tried and refined. : )
@CaptainHarley
Yep, alchemy, but damn, it’s hot when in the flames. haha
They are the same because neither can be quantified.
But I have never felt so sad about the death of a stranger as I did last night while listening to Obama’s words for Christina Green. Maybe this is because he is a powerful orator.
Regardless, the loss always seems greater when the victim is young. To murder anyone is wrong, but to murder a child is especially senseless.
@Coloma
He never promised there would be no fire, only that he would walk with us through it. : )
I’m with @Jude, I don’t understand the point or need of this question. That said, I consider the death, especially the cold-blooded murder, of an innocent of any age to be incredibly sad.
Ok first let me say I hate death I hate loss, just losing innocents naturally is tough enough. With that said I don’t really like the question but I feel I should answer it as it was in my “questions” sections.
I will start like this, either death would be a tragedy although we think that maybe the older victim might die earlier, that’s not always the case, a lot of innocents die by accident or even from sickness and even just naturally and maybe more so than being put at gun point. So now I have to answer the question who’s death would be worse? In my eyes the child, for the reason of a life being taken that has never lived. In the eyes of the murderer, I think it might be the elder. I say this only because when I watch that show “Lockup” the prisoners are usually against the prisoners who have committed crime against a child. It’s usually the 1st time prisoners/murders that go on shooting whoever and then pay the consequence on the inside without knowledge beforehand. The career criminal knows the ins and out of the prison system I think they will shoot whoever is in their best interest for their profile. That’s just my opinion.
I would have to say it is worse to lose the 10 year old. I can only go by the value I put on my own life. I’m going ot be 50 and if someone pointed a gun at a 10 year old and I could save the 10 year olds life by stepping in the way, I would hope I would because I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t.
Now if its another person my age. Well, everyone for themselves. Duck fast!
I know that among murderers and felons the death of a 10 year old is way more heinous. A perpetrator introduced into a prison population for crimes against children has a seriously reduced life expectancy.
Personally, I count the death of a child as one of the worst trageties possible. As mentioned before the loss of potential, the loss of innocence, the grief of the parents. All add up to a line from Tolkein, ‘No father should have to bury his son’ The younger the child, the greater the loss in my estimation.
This is not to say that the loss of a septigenerian isn’t a loss. The potential loss of experience and historical context is a tragety as well.
@marinelife _ One aspect that you have not mentioned is the impact of a child’s death on its parents. Really, three lives are ruined. I did not expand on it but I did mention _To each sets of families it is a given they feel a big loss.* With the senior the loss has the potential to laterally and vertically spread over a larger number of people and generations. Not only are some people loosing a parent but others are losing a grandparent. I don’t know if the amount of people mourning can quantify which loss would weigh more but that is a real and pertinent probability there will be more direct relatives missing the older person.
@Austinlad I’m with @Jude, I don’t understand the point or need of this question. People have polarized opinions about the magnitude of dead, there is not one answer that would be the all-in-all same as those who say no guns for anyone will stop killings or take them down greatly, to those who say why take everyone’s guns because that would leave the criminals who care nothing of gun laws having them.
If one separates themselves from the heart pull emotion of it one might see the genus of the question. For lack of a better analogy some people see a child as a blank slate or the foundation of a structure but there is not much there. If all you had was a foundation and the walls framed in but no plumbing, no electrical, the dry wall wasn’t hung and it didn’t even have a roof, and a flood or landslide wiped it away the actual loss was minimum. Certainly if measured against a structure that was completed, had occupants and memories of births, holidays, wakes, proms, etc. A landslide or flood would take away far more. Some would see that even though the older person has lived and maybe lived a full life as oppose to the child who is cheated out of that life, that senior carries a well spring of experience and history. They might have even survived and beat medical or health adversity like diabetes, cancer, etc only to be cut down by a bullet. To some that is like running a marathon and getting to the 24th mile marker and having the race called, shut down; it would be like all those miles ran were wasted and for nothing.
It is a terrible shame anyone has to die outside or natural means due to plain old age, but for many that is not going to happen.
One day after New Years the local news reported some young man was shot to death in a parking lot. He lived more than a 10yr old, maybe even got to boink a few sweethearts but he was still cut short of what he might have done. Then again as it has been mentioned, he might have just gone on to be a career criminal. The hope might have turned to horror, that future no one knows.
This question is as polarizing as to whether abortion should be legal.
Honestly, I don’t know how people get up in the morning and put their feet on the floor…having dealt with the death of a loved one…at any age.
Logically, the death of the child would be “worse” as the potential results of their life greatly outnumber the potential results of the seniors due to the probable difference in length of said lives. That is to say, the child could still do many things with his life while the older man is quite restricted in what he is still capable of doing.
From a standpoint of conventional western morality, neither death would rate as “worse” as all deaths are tragic in such a manner that it would be either impossible or deeply difficult to quantify without belittling the deaths of those involved.
They are both awful, and I can’t choose which would be “worse”.
@Hypocrisy_Central, I take your point. Nothing wrong with your asking it (nothing wrong with anyone asking anything). I had the choice to answer it or not.
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