One or two, but for me deciding which move to make is practically instinct, less lookahead. Also I’m not entirely sure how this is relevant.
What role should the future play in decision-making?
For me, it seems that if you’re confident that having more people in the world is a net positive, then as a necessary conclusion the moral thing to do is to try to have as many children as possible.
It is not clear to me that prohibiting murder derives from that position or mandates birth.
If you’re not sure of this, I don’t undersand how you can conclude it’s a moral wrong to destroy something which is not yet a person but merely has the potential to become one.
By quantification of “merely.” If we determine that a particular coma patient has a 90% chance of reawakening and becoming a person again, then it seems almost as bad to end them as it would be to end them once they were awake. If we determine that a particular coma patient has a 5% chance of reawakening and becoming a person again, then it seems not nearly as bad to end them. If we determine that a particular coma patient has a 1e-6 chance of reawakening and becoming a person again, then it seems that ending them has little moral cost.
If infants are nearly guaranteed to become people, then failing to protect them because we are impatient does not strike me as wisdom.
What role should the future play in decision-making?
It is not clear to me that prohibiting murder derives from that position or mandates birth.
By quantification of “merely.” If we determine that a particular coma patient has a 90% chance of reawakening and becoming a person again, then it seems almost as bad to end them as it would be to end them once they were awake. If we determine that a particular coma patient has a 5% chance of reawakening and becoming a person again, then it seems not nearly as bad to end them. If we determine that a particular coma patient has a 1e-6 chance of reawakening and becoming a person again, then it seems that ending them has little moral cost.
If infants are nearly guaranteed to become people, then failing to protect them because we are impatient does not strike me as wisdom.