The problem is that no Mars mission is possible without unavoidable exposure to cancerous or lethal levels of radiation.
But they really want to do it and the pressure is huge.
So, says USA Today, they've got scads of scientists and professors and ethicists hammering away at it, and I fear they'll keep hammering until they get the answer they want.
Then they'll stop.
And we'll have all the assurance any rational person could possibly want that it's truly morally OK, won't we?
Society's best and brightest consulted, everybody with his ass covered, no stone unturned, no trick missed, nothing left to chance, nobody to be blamed.
Once upon a time, they'd have asked a congress of clergy or the Pope.
Say what you will, those clerics were a lot closer to real independence.
Anyway, having got their OK, the powers that be will go ahead.
They will have officially espoused the kamikaze ethic we refused even in the desperation of WWII.
And for what?
A really expensive science project.
Under capitalism, government checks pressures on businesses to do their worst.
Under socialism, what will check pressures on government?
The independent moral authority of the churches?
Not at this late date.
God is dead, remember?
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