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Re:Why Not Mars by lapcat on Monday January 02, 2023 @01:31AM (#34215005)
> I guess i see children having to deal with choices their parents made a part of life.

Most responsible parents strive to make the lives of their children better rather than worse. Not always successfully of course, but it's the goal, and going to Mars is predictably worse.

> Would the offer of a trip back to earth for any child born on mars go any way to overcoming your concerns?

It might allay the moral dilemma, but it would increase the concerns about the long-term viability of the colony.

Re:Why Not Mars by BHSPitMonkey on Monday January 02, 2023 @01:39AM (#34215059)
Would you also say "shame on you" to anyone who procreates in a country with a lower standard of living than the wealthier countries on this planet? After all, aren't those parents subjecting their children to a life with more hazards / less opportunities?
Re:Why Not Mars by lapcat on Monday January 02, 2023 @01:56AM (#34215141)
I'm talking about freedom of choice:

>Do we build a wall around Earth and stop them as "illegal aliens"?

This was of course an analogy to the United States, where we put up barriers to prevent emigrants from seeking a better life here.

There's no shame in procreation, but there's shame in trapping people forever in a place where they no longer want to live.

Re:Why Not Mars by moloch-hai on Monday January 02, 2023 @02:59AM (#34215483)
You wouldn't even need an Iron Curtain: moving to Earth, however much they want to, would kill them.
Re:Why Not Mars by krisoft on Monday January 02, 2023 @04:47AM (#34216145)
> moving to Earth, however much they want to, would kill them

That is an assumption but far from a certainty.

Re:Why Not Mars by moloch-hai on Monday January 02, 2023 @04:50AM (#34216167)
Uncertainty does not help you here.
Re:Why Not Mars by samus on Monday January 02, 2023 @02:57AM (#34215471)
Only very few places on Earth are truly that shitty that I would doubt people's sanity for raising children there. Active war zones and areas affected by climate change for example, and to no one's surprise people risk their lives to escape from those. Even in a refugee camp, their children would still lead a life that is magnitudes easier and more pleasurable than on a Mars colony.
Re:Why Not Mars by sangnoir on Monday January 02, 2023 @03:23AM (#34215637)
> Would you also say "shame on you" to anyone who procreates in a country with a lower standard of living than the wealthier countries on this planet?

I would not hesitate to do so to any parents that leave a perfectly functional society to raise children as subsistence farmers in an smog-choked, irradiated, arid clime. Opting to raise your children under worse conditions than those one grew up under, and has access to is despicable and selfish.