Lives Less Valuable

Do you think the loss of a childless person over the age of, say 50, is less of a loss than a parent of the same age?

Or maybe what I'm wondering is if a childless person's life is worth the same as a parent. I've been thinking about that lately, not having kids myself, and about the concept of worthiness.

It's strange because I think of people in my life, women specifically, who do not have children, and I see them as living full and interesting lives. Their worth, in my eyes, is just as great as my friends who are parents. Obviously, a death of a parent is more tragic because they have children who now mourn their absence, but that's not what I'm talking about really. The loss aside, was the parent (for lack of better term), a better or more valuable person, than the non-parent? Did they contribute to society more by raising another person?

So why do I question this in myself? Why do I wonder if my life will seem purposeless if I get to the end of it and have no human to show for it?  Maybe because I always thought I put a lot into my creative endeavors, but don't push so hard as to be obsessed with recognition and award-winning, because I thought I would put my greatest work into being a parent.

Now I don't think I will be a parent, and I have no interest becoming obsessed with my career or other creative undertakings, and making it my "baby".  So what does that make me? I'm not a parent, I'm not a philanthropist, volunteer, athlete, award winning PJ.  Just a person I guess. At the moment I don't mind that.