I agree, and that’s why my intuition pushes me towards Life Extension. But how does that fact fit into utilitarianism? And if you’re diverging from utilitarianism, what are you replacing it with?
That birth doesn’t create any utility for the person being born (since it can’t be said to satisfy their preferences), but death creates disutility for the person who dies. Birth can still create utility for people besides the one being born, but then the same applies to death and disutility. All else being equal, this makes death outweigh birth.
I agree, and that’s why my intuition pushes me towards Life Extension. But how does that fact fit into utilitarianism? And if you’re diverging from utilitarianism, what are you replacing it with?
That birth doesn’t create any utility for the person being born (since it can’t be said to satisfy their preferences), but death creates disutility for the person who dies. Birth can still create utility for people besides the one being born, but then the same applies to death and disutility. All else being equal, this makes death outweigh birth.