Whether this is so or not depends on whether you are assuming hedonistic or preference utilitarianism. For a hedonistic utilitarian, contraception is, in a sense, tantamount to murder, except that as a matter of fact murder causes much more suffering than contraception does, both to the person who dies, to his or her loved ones, and to society at large (by increasing fear). By contrast, preference utilitarians can also appeal to the preferences of the individual who is killed: whereas murder causes the frustration of an existing preference, contraception doesn’t, since nonexisting entities can’t have preferences.
The question also turns on issues about population ethics. The previous paragraph assumes the “total view”: that people who do not exist but could or will exist matter morally, and just as much. But some people reject this view. For these people, even hedonistic utilitarians can condemn murder more harshly than contraception, wholly apart from the indirect effects of murder on individuals and society. The pleasure not experienced by the person who fails to be conceived doesn’t count, or counts less than the pleasure that the victim of murder is deprived of, since the latter exists but the former doesn’t.
For further discussion, see Peter Singer’s Practical Ethics, chap. 4 (’What’s wrong with killing?”).
Pablo makes great points about the suffering of loved ones, etc. But, modulo those points, I’d say making a life is as important as saving a life. (I’m only going to address the potentially contentious “rephrase” here, and not the original problem; I find the making life / saving life case more interesting.) And I’m not a utilitarian.
When you have a child, even if you follow the best available practices, there is a non-trivial chance that the child will have a worse-than-nothing existence. They could be born with some terminal, painful, and incurable illness. What justifies taking that risk? Suggested answer: the high probability that a child will be born to a good life. Note that in many cases, the child who would have an awful life is a different child (coming from a different egg and/or sperm—a genetically defective one) than the one who would have a good life.
Whether this is so or not depends on whether you are assuming hedonistic or preference utilitarianism. For a hedonistic utilitarian, contraception is, in a sense, tantamount to murder, except that as a matter of fact murder causes much more suffering than contraception does, both to the person who dies, to his or her loved ones, and to society at large (by increasing fear). By contrast, preference utilitarians can also appeal to the preferences of the individual who is killed: whereas murder causes the frustration of an existing preference, contraception doesn’t, since nonexisting entities can’t have preferences.
The question also turns on issues about population ethics. The previous paragraph assumes the “total view”: that people who do not exist but could or will exist matter morally, and just as much. But some people reject this view. For these people, even hedonistic utilitarians can condemn murder more harshly than contraception, wholly apart from the indirect effects of murder on individuals and society. The pleasure not experienced by the person who fails to be conceived doesn’t count, or counts less than the pleasure that the victim of murder is deprived of, since the latter exists but the former doesn’t.
For further discussion, see Peter Singer’s Practical Ethics, chap. 4 (’What’s wrong with killing?”).
Pablo makes great points about the suffering of loved ones, etc. But, modulo those points, I’d say making a life is as important as saving a life. (I’m only going to address the potentially contentious “rephrase” here, and not the original problem; I find the making life / saving life case more interesting.) And I’m not a utilitarian.
When you have a child, even if you follow the best available practices, there is a non-trivial chance that the child will have a worse-than-nothing existence. They could be born with some terminal, painful, and incurable illness. What justifies taking that risk? Suggested answer: the high probability that a child will be born to a good life. Note that in many cases, the child who would have an awful life is a different child (coming from a different egg and/or sperm—a genetically defective one) than the one who would have a good life.
Only if the hedonistic utilitarian is also a total utilitarian, rather than an average utilitarian, right?
Edit: Read your second paragraph, now I feel silly.