“The Value of a Single Human Life”
“Gabrielle Rose”
Gianna B. Callan, grade 9
Waterbury Center, VT
Rice Memorial High School, South Burlington, VT
My essay may be on the more unusual side, as opposed to doing someone that I really knew and that lived for a good time, I’m choosing someone that had a true impact on me and my family in such a short period of time. I wasn’t born yet nor were 2 of my brothers and 3 of my sisters. One thing is for sure though, it left a mark on all of us. My sister was born on March 12, 1998 at Mt Carmel East Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Although things were not right, she was born with Turner’s Syndrome which caused her heart, lungs, and kidneys to be underdeveloped and if she could survive that, she wouldn’t be able to have kids. Tragically she passed away the day after she was born, on March 13, 1998 at Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. However, she was able to survive long enough for her to get baptized and get a picture that we will always cherish and protect. I know she is in Heaven and is much happier there than on Earth. I still miss her though and I wish I didn’t totally feel that way because I know it’s selfish, but still.
I say this story because no matter how young a child is from the moment it’s conceived it’s a person and will have an impact on other people. Even if they die in the end they are still important to people even if they’re not important to you necessarily, they will be to another person, that’s always the case that’s why we should choose life not death. God created us all for a reason and that reason shouldn’t be to kill others, it never has or should. Even if you don’t believe that they are a person when conceived, when they develop a brain at 3-4 weeks of conception, they develop a consciousness with it, once conscious they have thoughts and feelings even in the womb. When you get an ultrasound and see that you’re pregnant it’s already too late because you can only do that at 6-8 weeks of conception.
No amount of self convincing should justify a death that you created, it’s the devil talking to you, not yourself. People need to wake up from that false reality because it does matter, it does affect other people, even yourself, you may not notice it right away but it does affect you and always will because you can’t take back death only God can, and that’s why we should go towards Him not the devil. I know this essay doesn’t just focus on my sister, but everything that I said is important, HER story is important. In short, choose life.
