I agree that some lives will go on to have a higher impact on others. I disagree with OP that you can predict which.
But the point from OP is that it’s unacceptable to have favourites in terms of the importance of their lives, for whatever reason. So if you think some lives are predictably instrumentally more valuable, it follows that a good moral theory should ignore (some of) the instrumental value of saving a life.
The OP spoke of evaluative claims (“it is better to...” and “the conclusion that some lives are more valuable...”), so I think it’s important to be clear that those axiological claims are not reasonably disputable, and hence not reasonably regarded as “repugnant” or whatever.
Now, it’s a whole ’nother question what should be done in light of these evaluative facts. One could argue that it’s “unacceptable” to act upon them; that one should ignore or disregard facts about instrumental value for the purposes of deciding which life to save.
The key question then is: why? Most naturally, I think, one may worry that acting upon such differences might reinforce historical and existing social inequalities in a way that is more detrimental on net than the first-order effects of doing more immediate good. If that worry is empirically accurate, then even utilitarians will agree with the verdict that one should “screen off” considerations of instrumental value in one’s decision procedure for saving lives (just as we ordinary think doctors etc. should). Saving the most (instrumentally) valuable life might not be the best thing to do, if the act itself—or the process by which it was decided—has further negative consequences.
[T]here are many cases in which instrumental favoritism would seem less appropriate. We do not want emergency room doctors to pass judgment on the social value of their patients before deciding who to save, for example. And there are good utilitarian reasons for this: such judgments are apt to be unreliable, distorted by all sorts of biases regarding privilege and social status, and institutionalizing them could send a harmful stigmatizing message that undermines social solidarity. Realistically, it seems unlikely that the minor instrumental benefits to be gained from such a policy would outweigh these significant harms. So utilitarians may endorse standard rules of medical ethics that disallow medical providers from considering social value in triage or when making medical allocation decisions. But this practical point is very different from claiming that, as a matter of principle, utilitarianism’s instrumental favoritism treats others as mere means [or is otherwise inherently objectionable]. There seems no good basis for that stronger claim.
I agree that some lives will go on to have a higher impact on others. I disagree with OP that you can predict which.
But the point from OP is that it’s unacceptable to have favourites in terms of the importance of their lives, for whatever reason. So if you think some lives are predictably instrumentally more valuable, it follows that a good moral theory should ignore (some of) the instrumental value of saving a life.
The OP spoke of evaluative claims (“it is better to...” and “the conclusion that some lives are more valuable...”), so I think it’s important to be clear that those axiological claims are not reasonably disputable, and hence not reasonably regarded as “repugnant” or whatever.
Now, it’s a whole ’nother question what should be done in light of these evaluative facts. One could argue that it’s “unacceptable” to act upon them; that one should ignore or disregard facts about instrumental value for the purposes of deciding which life to save.
The key question then is: why? Most naturally, I think, one may worry that acting upon such differences might reinforce historical and existing social inequalities in a way that is more detrimental on net than the first-order effects of doing more immediate good. If that worry is empirically accurate, then even utilitarians will agree with the verdict that one should “screen off” considerations of instrumental value in one’s decision procedure for saving lives (just as we ordinary think doctors etc. should). Saving the most (instrumentally) valuable life might not be the best thing to do, if the act itself—or the process by which it was decided—has further negative consequences.
Again, per utilitarianism.net:
I like a lot the last paragraph pointing out to the risk of perpetuating a privileged situation based on bias. Thanks for sharing it.