is life really a gift?

I agree with the first responder. Life is not something that can be easily compared to any material that can be possessed. Life is more complicated and complex than that. Life is an entity. Not many people can actually attest to 'give' a life, literally and figuratively speaking. We aren't really punished, we receive the consequences of our actions, whether good or bad. In every action we take, we respond with a reaction and we should accept it and learn from it. This is the basis of our experience to be better and be more aware of the world. Perhaps that you think that other people punish others for their actions. That is a unwelcome but a griping and real fact. There are things that other can control and others cannot.

a famous scientist said once, ' you can view life in two ways, as if everything is a miracle or as if nothing is' our life is based in such reality i think you get the point

If you don't die, you have no life. Comparing a material gift to gift of life is like trying to make the sky and the land meet together.