> You could say it's "selfish" to live one life where there could be ten, but how can one be selfish with respect to non-existing persons?
It's more selfishly using the resources younger people can use. If you're eighty, I'd rather feed the eight year old. Until we move beyond resource constraints (lol) this is going to be a major effect of the rich being able to afford long lives AND food and the poor affording neither.
But what makes eighty special? Would you say the same thing about someone who was younger? "If you're forty, I'd rather feed the four year old"? If not, then why not?
The only objective metric I can think of is that today, 80 is usually not an age at which a person can do much. But if we have technology that lets you live much longer, and people at 80 would be physically like, say, 20-year-old today, that goes away.
And, of course, the number of young people "in the pipeline" can be regulated by controlling birth rates.
It's more selfishly using the resources younger people can use. If you're eighty, I'd rather feed the eight year old. Until we move beyond resource constraints (lol) this is going to be a major effect of the rich being able to afford long lives AND food and the poor affording neither.