The visceral reaction to “kill your kids” comes from imagining that you’re actually killing them, not letting them go about a normal life. You can argue that it comes down to the same thing, but if they were really the same thing, you could use the less emotionally-loaded language.
What you’re saying: What kind of terrible parent lets their kids live a life slightly better than they had?
Mere framing, depending simply on what your brain thinks is normal. Visit a convention of cryonicists and talk to the kids signed up for cryonics. Those parents wouldn’t think very highly of themselves if they didn’t pay to sign up their kids. If their children died and were lost, they would hold themselves at fault. They’re right.
(The obvious metaphor—so obvious, in fact, that it is not even a metaphor—is withholding lifesaving medical care. Consider how we feel about parents who refuse to treat their kid’s cancer, for example.)
Exactly. Or “What kind of parent settles for letting their kids have merely a slightly better life than they had when a dramatically better life might be possible?”
The visceral reaction to “kill your kids” comes from imagining that you’re actually killing them, not letting them go about a normal life. You can argue that it comes down to the same thing, but if they were really the same thing, you could use the less emotionally-loaded language.
What you’re saying: What kind of terrible parent lets their kids live a life slightly better than they had?
Mere framing, depending simply on what your brain thinks is normal. Visit a convention of cryonicists and talk to the kids signed up for cryonics. Those parents wouldn’t think very highly of themselves if they didn’t pay to sign up their kids. If their children died and were lost, they would hold themselves at fault. They’re right.
(The obvious metaphor—so obvious, in fact, that it is not even a metaphor—is withholding lifesaving medical care. Consider how we feel about parents who refuse to treat their kid’s cancer, for example.)
Yes, that is indeed the analogy—pardon me, classification—that I was looking for.
Huh? How about:
seems more fair.
Not quite. If my phrasing was confusing, try instead:
Exactly. Or “What kind of parent settles for letting their kids have merely a slightly better life than they had when a dramatically better life might be possible?”