I had never questioned my desire to have children until recently.
A highly-respected user on another message board stated that he thinks having children in this day and age is rather selfish. My first reaction was anger, because I know many wonderful people with children.
But then I thought about it more. If you examine the real reasons people have children, none of them are honest efforts to make the world a better place.
Really, why do people in western society (where we don't need them as assets) bring children into an overpopulated world?
-Obviously we have a physical desire to reproduce, but that is just a biological urge, and contraceptives are available.
-I suppose some people really believe they are genetically or behaviorally elite and it is their duty to raise children because they can do better than others.
-Some may be looking to give meaning to their life
-Others may be saddened that they have lost their youth and want to experience it again vicariously through their children
-I do know people who have had children because they feel like that's what they are supposed to do at their age
-And of course many people have kids unintentionally
All of those reasons strike me as selfish, or at least irrational. I am no longer sure I will have children; it used to be a given for me.
If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation, as to spare it the burden of existence? Or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood. ~Arthur Schopenhauer
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