"When your own life is threatened, your sense of ____ is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival” (Yann Martel in Life of Pi) (7)
I believe the answer is:
empathy
(Other definitions for empathy that I've seen before include "Intuitive fellow-feeling" , "Understanding" , "Sharing experiences" , "Shared emotion" , "Ability to identify with another's feelings" .)