Worth noting that the dead baby value is very different from the actual amount which most Westerners regard the lives of white, middle-class people from their own country as being worth. In fact, pretty much the whole point of the statistic is that it’s SHOCKINGLY low. I suppose we could hope that Dead Baby currency would result in a reduction to that discrepancy… although I think in the case of the actual example given, the Malthusians* have a point where it would dramatically increase access to life-prolonging things without increasing access to birth control much, resulting in more population and thus more people to save.
*To clarify: I actually agree with the Malthusian ecology- it’s just a basic fact of ecology, I’m amazed that anyone seriously disagrees with it- but not to the objection to charitable donations on that basis; anyone who actually thinks that would go “you should instead give money to provide birth control”.
I just want to say that even though I generally disagree with these objections to donation*, I really love the “You can’t just throw nutrients into ecosystem and expect a morally good outcome.” bit and will try to remember/save that in the future. It’s rather interesting that Malthusianism is completely accepted without comment in ecology and evolution, but seems to be widely hated when brought up in political or social spheres, so maybe phrasing it in ecosystem terms will make people more liable to accept it. Probably be best to introduce the concept that way first before suggesting any policies derived from it.
*Not the objection, but the bit where people conclude “So I’m going to keep my money for myself” rather than “So I’m going to give to a charity to distribute birth control instead”. Which to be fair you don’t seem to be entirely doing, so you’re not actually one of those people.