The Six Million Dollar Man.
That was a very popular television series in the mid-1970s, and which had a spin-off called The Bionic Woman. It was about a popular astronaut who met with a horrific accident, causing him to nearly die, and who could be saved only by implanting bionic technology into him, causing the astronomical (pun intended) sum of $6 million. Do not laugh. That really was an enormous amount of money back then. Now, even if you stub your big toe, the doctor will charge $6 million, and a similar bionic operation could very well cost $6 billion now.
However, all of this may be a dead issue as the “What’s Your Body Worth?” infographic shows that the human body, by itself, is worth a tremendous amount. It shows the maximum amount that you can claim for damage to various parts of the body. In essence, then, it is not a true reflection of the worth, it shows only the amount that bureaucratic decision-makers arbitrarily decide on what is the politically-correct amount. Regardless, it does give us some gauge as to the worth.
For example, damage to just three parts–to the brain, to your eyes and ears (resulting in total blindness and deafness), and to the loss of both hands–adds up to £500,000 or $786,225 according to xe.com. There are numerous other evidences of value, although some of them appear redundant and, of course, if you did suffer from all of these medical issues then you would probably be dead.
Most of all, although the body is worth a lot, it does not appear to add up to $6 million.
Likes: We had heard of similar studies, but it is nice to see the body’s worth in an infographic format.
Dislikes: The total amount is not added up.
