You have a wrongful death claim and need an indisputable source of information to determine the minimum value of a human life.  Wouldn’t it be nice if the federal government published minimum values for the loss of a human life? Well, they have! The U.S. Defense Department has made a conscious decision on this very disputed issue of value.  

The federal government has determined that the minimum value attributable to the loss of one life is $250,000,000 (a quarter of a billion dollars).  How can this be? Where can the supporting information be reviewed?  Well, the F-22 Raptor costs approximately $250 million per jet, replacing the F-15 Eagle which costs $65 million each.

The federal government installs pilot ejector systems on every F-22 Raptor Jet fighter. The government does this to protect the pilot, not the plane.  In order to  save the life of a pilot of a Raptor F-22, the government chooses to sacrifice our most expensive combat jet airplane to insure the pilot lives to fly another day.  The F-22 jet airplane costs $250,000,000 to manufacture.   In spite of this huge cost, the federal government has chosen to install an ejector system to save the pilot’s life even though the ejection of the pilot will result in the certain and immediate loss of a quarter of a billion dollar jet airplane.

How about that…  This analogy was raised some time ago by a trial lawyer by referencing the Eagle F-15.  Well the minimum value for the loss of a human life has just gone up… at least in the eyes of the federal government.