 An attempt to produce a compromise between a total principle and an average principle is provided by a variable value principle. The idea behind this view is that the value of adding worthwhile lives to a population varies with the number of already existing lives in such a way that it has more value when the number of these lives is small than when it is large (Hurka 1983, Ng 1989; Sider 1991). Taking this view, Noah’s obligation to procreate after the Deluge was much stronger than our obligation today. Variable value principles are sometimes called “compromise theories” since they can be said to be a compromise between total and average utilitarianism (for a version that is sensitive to more aspects regarding welfare, see Temkin 1997, 2012). With small populations enjoying high welfare, a variable value principle behaves like total utilitarianism and assigns most of the value to the total sum of welfare. For large populations with low welfare, the principle mimics average utilitarianism and assigns most of the value to average welfare. This property is what makes it possible to avoid the Repugnant Conclusion. If the value of extra lives decreases asymptotically, then there may exist an upper limit to the total value of a population (exactly as the sum of the infinite series 1+1/2+1/4+ … has the upper limit 2). As long as population A in Fig. 1 has a total value above this limit this population will be preferable no matter how populous the low quality population Z is (Hurka 1983, Ng 1989; Sider 1991; Temkin 1997, 2012).