Nonidentity problem

Have you ever heard someone say “I’m not like everyone else” or “I’m different”? That’s what the nonidentity problem is all about.

Let’s say there’s a person named Emma who has a genetic disorder that will make her life harder. Her parents decide to have her anyways because they love her and want her to exist, even though they know her life might be tough.

Now, some people might say that Emma’s parents did the wrong thing by having her, because they knew she would have a hard life. But this is where the nonidentity problem comes in - it’s hard to say whether or not Emma’s parents actually did something wrong, because Emma wouldn’t exist at all if they chose not to have her.

The nonidentity problem is a philosophical question that asks whether or not it’s possible to harm or benefit future people by creating them in certain ways. It’s complicated because it’s hard to know if a person would be better off not existing at all, and we can only make choices based on the people who actually exist.

Basically, the nonidentity problem is all about the tricky ethical questions that come up when we think about creating people and the choices we make about their existence.