a subjective measurement of the charicteristics of one's life. one might be said to have a high quality of life if he has enough to eat and drink and if he has been given chances to improve himself. it is easy to see how this measurement is fickle--every person has been tainted by his own life situations and cannot posses an unbiased view of another's. even with this fault, though, there are still many times when the quality of life of an individual is agreed upon. an orphan with a life-threatning illness, a veal calf, and a hamster in a hamstery are all good examples of having what the public deems a low quality of life. in the case of the orphan, he might have a chance to improve his life. in the cases of the veal calf and the hamster, however, they are at the mercy of another's choices.

Interestingly, the Catholic Church doesn't allow quality of life arguments to supercede quantity of life. This is the baseboard in their position against abortion and the death penalty.

By most standards a fetus has a fairly low quality of life, and you can get a Catholic to admit that. But the presence of any life --any quantifiable human existance -- precludes its killing.

Throwing a prisoner in a hole forever as opposed to just offing them... same difference. You can smack the hell out of somebody's quality of life, but keep 'em in the head count.

I went to Catholic School for this?

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