Unparents

University of Cape Town professor David Benatar argues answers the question “How many children should we have” with a simple “None.”

“Morally responsible parents wish to spare their children pain,” he argues. But “the only way to prevent harm altogether is to desist from bringing children into existence. Any child will, inevitably, suffer considerable harm.”

Even parents in wealthy, safe countries can’t save their kids from “the discomfort, distress, frustration and unhappiness that characterise even the most charmed lives. It also ignores the appalling fates that can befall anybody. These include assault, devastating injury, degenerative disease and depression.”

“Parents may benefit from procreation, but only at serious cost to those brought into existence. It’s hard to see how imposing these costs can be justified, especially since nobody is harmed by not being born.”

It’s a perfectly sound argument, and self-extinction is a perfectly reasonable plan for the human race, if one accepts the premise that avoidance of suffering is the summum bonum .