Space Trilogy - Utilitarian

In Out of The Silent Planet there is a theme of sacrifice in the beginning that I found quite interesting. When Ransom and Devine finally Weston of their plan of kidnapping him and taking him to this planet in space for the sake of sacrifice, Weston was appalled at first. Ransom said "you cannot be so small-minded as to think that the rights or life of an individual or of a milltion individuals are of the slightest importance in comparison". Yet when later asked why he is doing this, he does not even know, "it was no idea of ours. We are only obeying orders." This is amazing. Ransom and Devine have not met the leaders of this new planet, yet they are told about a possible sacrifice and their earthly moral code says its okay for one or millions because the trade off is so much better. Yet they are not aware of the trade off. When there are times that call for people to make hard choices, some which require great sacrifice, and here we see that Ransom has no objections, I find this interesting because so many people want change, but are never fully willing to do what is required.