The right of the unborn. Do future generations also have rights?
Man has never wanted to resign himself to death.
Science is keeping us alive for longer and longer, and research is now even being conducted into whether the aging process can be slowed down or perhaps even stopped someday.
Suppose this works. That a 150-year-old can still be just as healthy as a 40-year-old.
On Xania, they were already that far.
Xar, our contact person on this distant planet, told us that they had overcome biological aging there. In principle, a Xanian could live indefinitely.
Yet everyone had to die after 175 earthly years. Not because they were sick or worn out, but to make way for the next generation.
Because if no one dies anymore and children keep being born, every planet will eventually become overcrowded. You could stop having children then, but by doing so, the existing generation is choosing for itself.
Why would someone who has already lived 175 years have more right to another 175 years than a child to their first year of life?
On Xania, this was called the right of the unborn .
But there was another reason.
New generations bring new ideas, insights, curiosity, and youthful vigor. If the same people were to continue determining politics, science, and society for centuries, the world would slowly stagnate.
As Xar said:
“We have overcome the old age of the body, but not the old age of our thoughts.”
The knowledge and experience of the elderly were not lost, however. They were carefully preserved and passed on. Knowledge was allowed to remain, but ultimately, people had to make way for a new generation.
It sounds harsh: telling a perfectly healthy Xianian that he must die after 175 years.
But according to Xar, the alternative was worse:
Without death, Xania would eventually be one big planet full of old geezers. Perfectly healthy old geezers, mind you.
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I wrote this article with the help of chatGPT, which helped me further develop my ideas.
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