The Ethics of the "Generation Ship"

Having just watched this before getting up and having breakfast...

As a lifelong scifi fan, I've consumed a tonne (well, a fair few kg) of this kind of story in my time. Until now, I've just revelled in the legends, but watching this, I've realised there is an ethical problem with "generation ships." Consent.

Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were volunteers and knew the risks. Collins went back as commander of Apollo 13 and got first hand experience of the life threatening risks. Space is treacherous and still largely unknown in Earth's perihelion (a wanky word for orbit), let alone beyond the heliopause, the end of the Sun's domain. What business do volunteers to crew a generation ship have, committing unwitting future generations of crew to such unknown?!

It's one thing to risk your life on a tall ship to make a months long journey to another land, like has happened in previous centuries and generations, but how thoughtless and selfish do you have to be, to commit your children and their children, and so on, to your dreams of adventure?!

My father was one of the so-called "10 Pound Pommies" who were given passage from the UK to Australia and 10 "quid" to cover travel expenses. He made the choice for himself and himself alone. He met mum in Launceston, Tasmania, and he committed to living in Australia. Until he naturalised, in 2014, he remained a British citizen, but he returned "home" only once. He never committed me or my sister to a future he could not know in any form, he stuck around for us for the duration. He never expected anything unreasonable of us other than what all teens think is unreasonable as part of their growth.

As a young man, not having had children myself, yet, I might have lept on a Generation Ship, had the opportunity presented, without a second thought. I realise now, having watched the above, that this is an ethical minefield, bordering on abusive. This is a one way trip, the trip to the stars at a fraction of light speed, who is anybody to make that choice for the unborn?! This is not exploration, this is enslavement!

My dad, didn't make a migration decision for me, half of who I am was destined to live in Australia. He made a decision for a better life than he could have had in the UK and built that life. He did not commit me to any unknown, alien world, or my dughters, or the children and grandchildren they have, to an uncertain life, confined to a space ship, and a world that we cannot know is habitable. Or not. He committed himself to the prospect of a better life and built that better life, with mum's help, for my sister and me, based on knowable outcomes.

Second and subsequent generations on an interstellar mission can rightly claim denial of consent. Anybody who would advocate, develop, fund or volunteer for a generation mission is a fascist. Unless the world is almost certainly coming to an end in the foreseeable future. Even then, what of those who aren't chosen? How would such crew be chosen? This is ethical conflict all the way down. Am I right, Mr Sagan?

No human should ever commission, nor crew, a generation ship,unless for the purposes of direct survival of the species, in the case of imminent, and definite destruction of human or all life on Earth. Even that reason is sketchy, at best. Interstellar travel should be banned until faster than light propulsion is found possible, and then, only within the bounds of a single generation for the return journey.