Commenting here to raise a counter-argument to one of my claims that no one has brought up yet. In the section “Bigger Problems”, I claim that the cost-effectiveness calculations implicitly endorse that acts B, C, and D are equivalent. I don’t think this is necessarily true though. Just because a cost-effectiveness calculation doesn’t include something doesn’t mean that thing doesn’t matter. The calculations also don’t include flow-through effects on the economy, or on factory farmed animals, or on lots of other things. So you could say that the GiveWell view endorses B < D and B < C, and then just doesn’t include this in the cost-effectiveness calculations.
I think this is right. People can have different opinions about whether it’s good to prevent (or cause) a birth. (Like I said, the mainstream consensus tends to relate to these issues to reproductive freedom.) But GiveWell isn’t weighing in on this, because of both empirical uncertainty and ethical ambivalence.
Commenting here to raise a counter-argument to one of my claims that no one has brought up yet. In the section “Bigger Problems”, I claim that the cost-effectiveness calculations implicitly endorse that acts B, C, and D are equivalent. I don’t think this is necessarily true though. Just because a cost-effectiveness calculation doesn’t include something doesn’t mean that thing doesn’t matter. The calculations also don’t include flow-through effects on the economy, or on factory farmed animals, or on lots of other things. So you could say that the GiveWell view endorses B < D and B < C, and then just doesn’t include this in the cost-effectiveness calculations.
I think this is right. People can have different opinions about whether it’s good to prevent (or cause) a birth. (Like I said, the mainstream consensus tends to relate to these issues to reproductive freedom.) But GiveWell isn’t weighing in on this, because of both empirical uncertainty and ethical ambivalence.