The Price of Life

by Jenny Kleeman

ISBN: 9781035004973

Published: 2024-03-14

* $2-3,000 to save the life of a child in Africa* £15,180 to hire a hitman* $368,901 to pay the average ransom demandWe say that life is priceless. Yet the cost of saving a life, creating a life or compensating for a life taken is routinely calculated and put into practice. In a world in love with data, it is possible to run a cost-benefit analysis on anything - including life itself. For philanthropists, judges, criminals, healthcare providers and government ministers, it's just part of the job. In The Price of Life, journalist, broadcaster and documentary-maker Jenny Kleeman takes us on an adventure to meet some of the people who decide what we're worth.In a series of extraordinary encounters - with people who have faked their own death or lost a loved one to terrorism, with hitmen and with modern day slaves - she discovers more questions than answers. What does it mean for our humanity when we crunch the numbers to decide who gets the expensive life-saving drugs, and who misses...