Just remembered the most bizarre PHM comment section on Tiktok I've seen so far where, with their full chest, multiple people claimed Eva Stratt had "the purest morals" because she loved humanity more than humans and, so, could never be "morally gray".
This woman nuked the artic.
She, quite literally, kidnapped a man, drugged him with an amnesiac drug, and sent him to die in space. Not just die, too, at best, commit suicide in space or starve to death in the hopes that he might find a solution to save the sun. All this after telling him he has no one, not even a dog, when he said no after being given 3 literal hours to decide. Everyone else on that list had years. He had hours.
No one knew this would work. That's why it was called "Project Hail Mary". And it, quite literally, would not have if Rocky hadn't been there waiting (I will not blame Stratt for this part since she had no way of knowing it would require outside help their over engineered ship could not provide).
Realistically, Doctor Ryland Grace would have spent his last days staring at an alien planet, unsure if the solution was there. Knowing no one cared that he'd die, the furthest that anyone had ever been from home. Knowing they'd all die too, that despite Stratt's best effort with the amnesiac drug, Grace still damned humanity with inaction. Because there was nothing he could do but take his own life knowing he was a failure with nothing.
That was morally gray shit right there.
It wasn't even all condensed against one man. (paving over the Sahara and nuking the artic circle to speed global warming and grow enough astrophage for the trip, illegally downloading the entire fucking internet which is soooo fucking funny but still illegal) Which, as we all know, makes okay to commit heinous acts against because Girlboss™
(That was a joke, ISTG THAT WAS A JOKE)
He was the best person for the job.
But he was also just a man, scared to die for humanity not knowing if he would succeed. A man scared of unknown risk. A Ryland Grace who knew the future wouldn't have hesitated. But he didn't know.
He had a life, for better or worse, and it's actually very morally gray to sacrifice someone else to save humanity. Especially while emphasizing that they're kind of a loser with no close friends or family to care if he suddenly vanished.
"Morally pure" would have been going herself. She'd had this man yammering in her ear for years now about astrophage, after all. Next best solution if the new, prime candidate would not go.
(There's the coma resistant gene thing, which I don't think she had, but I wouldn't put it past her to spend 4 years awake. Watching over the crew, studying microbiology to further their chances on an incredibly restricted diet or coma slurry).
Eva Stratt did the right thing, but it was not morally right that she did it.
There is no such thing as "morally pure", just people doing their best despite the circumstances.
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