Value of Life

Bri and Sheila's ten-year-old daughter, Joe, unquestionably has a biological life. Though she is severely physically disabled and lacks cognition due to cerebral palsy, she breathes without a respirator and her heart beats without medical assistance. Joe's mother, Sheila, believes anyone who has a biological life has the potential to improve that life. When Joe was one-and-a-half, she could purposely knock down block towers, until a series of grand mal seizures halted her physical and mental development. Sheila faithfully cares for Joe because she sees the lively child Joe could be someday. She even imagines her daughter jumping rope and spelling polysyllabic words in the last scene of Act One, a vision the audience also sees. For an audience member or a reader who agrees with Sheila, anyone with a beating heart also possesses promise, the promise that his or her life may someday...