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Comment by Someone1234 | Hacker News Reader

Good.

We purchased a lab grown/man-made diamond on purpose. Even "non-conflict" diamonds are mined in immoral ways. And while in theory it is great to bring outside money into some of the poorest areas of the world, the work conditions and atrocities cannot be ignored[0][1][2].

Ideally people should move beyond diamonds entirely. There's plenty of precious stones. But in the meantime lab grown diamonds are the most moral way to buy a diamond.

[0] http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15842524/ns/world_news/t/diamonds-...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour_in_the_diamond_in...

[2] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/all-diamonds-out-of-afric_b_2...

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Second hand diamonds are arguably even more morally defensible.

Well, about a century ago, when I got married, we weren't thinking about ethical dilemmas, because we weren't really aware of them back then. I gave my wife a diamond that had been my grandmother's, partly because the stone was free to me (don't tell my wife that!), and partly because the family history made it a bit more special than just some random diamond we found in a store.

I suspect, as family sizes stabilize on two or fewer kids, there's going to be a lot more of passing down family diamonds, and therefore less demand for new...

Second-hand synthetic diamonds, sure - but buying anything second hand is generally more morally defensible than buying that thing new.

Buying a used natural diamond is still worse than buying a synthetic one, because you're propping up the resale value of natural diamonds and therefore encouraging other people to buy them.

Where did you purchase the lab grown diamond?

There's a number of stores on the internet that offer them. You just buy the diamond then have them set into a band of your choice.

I don't think large jewelry chains commonly offer them.

I wouldn't be surprised if their supply or natural diamonds was contingent on them not selling artificial ones.

Or maybe they're owned by the companies selling natural stones?

Wouldn't be the first time that someone tried to own the whole market from end to end.

Diamond Foundry: https://diamondfoundry.com/ had a big marketing push a couple of years ago.

Funny enough, but you can get them on Amazon. :)

I bought my lab grown diamond from a jewelry store.

I went in to buy an engagement ring and the clerk pulled out a few diamonds for me to look at, without telling me anything about them except that their prices were all similar.

I picked the one I thought looked the nicest (sparkly and big) and then the clerk told me about each of them.

The one I picked was lab grown. It was a higher quality diamond than the other two, and it was bigger, for the same price as a smaller, lower quality, "real" diamond.

(It wasn't a huge amount of money. Probably one or two hundred dollars.)

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