Hal: I wouldn’t do it, nor do I think I’d want to live in a world governed thusly. My reasoning is that it violates individual liberty and self-possession. It seems to imply that individuals are somehow the “eminent domain”, as it were, of society. I reject that. I say that nobody has the right to spend the baby’s life. Granted, this is more of a political stance than a moral one. I can’t claim that there’s an objective reason to value individual rights so highly, but it is a fact that I do. I know you said the baby wouldn’t suffer, but this question still put me in mind of the idea that pain and happiness may not be the same currency. It may not be valid to try to offer suffering as a payment for happiness.
Hal: I wouldn’t do it, nor do I think I’d want to live in a world governed thusly. My reasoning is that it violates individual liberty and self-possession. It seems to imply that individuals are somehow the “eminent domain”, as it were, of society. I reject that. I say that nobody has the right to spend the baby’s life. Granted, this is more of a political stance than a moral one. I can’t claim that there’s an objective reason to value individual rights so highly, but it is a fact that I do. I know you said the baby wouldn’t suffer, but this question still put me in mind of the idea that pain and happiness may not be the same currency. It may not be valid to try to offer suffering as a payment for happiness.