Those grandchildren already exist; no one’s saying they don’t matter. Are you saying these grandmothers want to have more and more grandchildren? I’m not sure people in these countries are having as many children as they would prefer; I’d expect them to prefer to have fewer, if more informed or if conditions were better for them. Child brides and other forms of coercion, worse access to contraceptives, abortion and other family planning services, worse access to information, more restrictive gender roles and fewer options for making a living generally, higher infant mortality rates, etc..
Was a claim made that future generations aren’t morally relevant? I think the objections were more specifically against the total view (and the astronomical waste argument), which treats people like mere vessels for holding value. Longtermism, in practice, seems to mostly mean the total view. There are many other person-affecting views besides presentism (“only those currently alive are morally relevant”), some of which could be called longtermist, too. So-called “wide” person-affecting views solve the non-identity problem, and there’s the procreation asymmetry, too.
Those grandchildren already exist; no one’s saying they don’t matter. Are you saying these grandmothers want to have more and more grandchildren? I’m not sure people in these countries are having as many children as they would prefer; I’d expect them to prefer to have fewer, if more informed or if conditions were better for them. Child brides and other forms of coercion, worse access to contraceptives, abortion and other family planning services, worse access to information, more restrictive gender roles and fewer options for making a living generally, higher infant mortality rates, etc..
Was a claim made that future generations aren’t morally relevant? I think the objections were more specifically against the total view (and the astronomical waste argument), which treats people like mere vessels for holding value. Longtermism, in practice, seems to mostly mean the total view. There are many other person-affecting views besides presentism (“only those currently alive are morally relevant”), some of which could be called longtermist, too. So-called “wide” person-affecting views solve the non-identity problem, and there’s the procreation asymmetry, too.