Character Protects Life.

HUMAN VALUES AS 'GUIDING VALUES' (operative values) DISTINCT FROM VALUE JUDGEMENTS (conceived values) 
theme: There are no values outside of human existence. Human values are values for living or 'operative values. Consequently the analysis of the human value life is a problem for biology i.e. 'moral science'.
 "Values are rooted in the very conditions of human existence; hence our knowledge of these conditions, that is, of the 'human situation', leads us to establishing values which have objective validity; this validity exists only with regard to the existence of man; outside of him there are no values." (Erich Fromm Values, Psychology, and Human Existence in Maslow A.H. (ed) New Knowledge in Human Values. New York: Harper, 1959)
What values are not... values are not values when they are objects of judgement... 'value judgements' or 'conceived values'. In the philosophical analysis of the human value life, there is often confusion between 'values' as 'true values' and values as 'value judgements'. Values are not the same as value judgements. Value judgements are values attached to subjective judgements which are made from of the perspective of self-centeredness or 'egoism'. Value judgements are based on a subjective and often egoistic and therefore judgemental thought process. Value judgements involve decisions about whether something is 'right or wrong', 'good or bad' and so on. The subjective criteria for right/wrong, good/bad are ultimately derived from the meaning attached to human existence - the 'cultural context' and its corresponding 'system of ethics'. According to the ethical system of 'humanism' the affirmation of life and the unfolding of human powers is 'good'; the denigration of life and the represssion of growth is 'bad'; the sense of responsibility toward human existence and excellence of human achievement is the source of 'virtue'; the sense of irresponsibility toward human existence is the source of 'vice'.  'Good' 'bad' 'virtue' and 'vice'...