With this in mind I will quote her so that we might gain an impression of her style of writing. The Objectivist ethics, in essence, hold that man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself. Rand says ethics is a code of values.
Value is that upon which one acts to gain or keep.
This concept of value has two presuppositions. First, some being, which is presumably a person, can act to achieve a goal and second, there are alternatives facing that person. Human beings do not survive automatically. They must choose a course for survival. Since living sentient organisms can make the choice between existence and non-existence then it follows that the organism's life is that ultimate value.