Introduction

Abstract

This volume raises and discusses a variety of questions about future persons from a variety of viewpoints. The overarching question discussed is: What is the ethical relationship between future persons and those of us who are here now? Many thinkers express this relationship in terms of rights. Do some or all future persons have certain rights charged against us? Do these future persons, for example, have rights pertaining to the environment such that we must act now to protect it for them then? Do they have a right to be created? More than that, do they have a right to be created in a condition of good health and, even beyond that, a right to be created in a better condition than we had when we were bom? And just how strong are these rights? Are these rights absolute (with no exceptions), almost absolute or merely ones that can be rebutted with any number of good reasons?