Has anyone produced writing on being pro-choice and placing a high value on future lives at the same time? I’d love to read about how these perspectives interact!
FYI I’m also interested in this. I do think it’s consistent to be pro-choice and place a high value on future lives (both because people might be able to create more future lives by (eg) working on longtermist causes than by having kids themself, and because you can place a high value on lives but say that it is outweighed by the harm done by forcing someone to give birth. But I think that pro-natalist and non-person-affecting views do have implications for reproductive rights and the ethics of reproduction that are seldom noticed or made explicit.
I’ve only just stumbled upon this question and I’m not sure if you’ll see this, but I wrote up some of my thoughts on the problems with the Total View of population ethics (see “Abortion and Contraception” heading specifically).
Personally, I think there is a tension there which does not seem to have been discussed much in the EA forum.
Has anyone produced writing on being pro-choice and placing a high value on future lives at the same time? I’d love to read about how these perspectives interact!
Richard Chappell wrote this piece, though IMHO it doesn’t really get to the heart of the tension.
FYI I’m also interested in this.
I do think it’s consistent to be pro-choice and place a high value on future lives (both because people might be able to create more future lives by (eg) working on longtermist causes than by having kids themself, and because you can place a high value on lives but say that it is outweighed by the harm done by forcing someone to give birth. But I think that pro-natalist and non-person-affecting views do have implications for reproductive rights and the ethics of reproduction that are seldom noticed or made explicit.
I’ve only just stumbled upon this question and I’m not sure if you’ll see this, but I wrote up some of my thoughts on the problems with the Total View of population ethics (see “Abortion and Contraception” heading specifically).
Personally, I think there is a tension there which does not seem to have been discussed much in the EA forum.
Here is a good post on the side of being pro-life: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ADuroAEX5mJMxY5sG/blind-spots-compartmentalizing
I have thought about this a lot, and I think pro-life might actually win out in terms of utility maximization if it doesn’t increase existential risk.