This petition is an attempt to have the word Antinatalism included into The Oxford English Dictionary. Antinatalism (Or Anti-Natalism) (Noun) - is a philosophical position that assigns a negative value to birth. It is the idea that procreation is unethical, that the suffering sentience produces is unnecessary, and that life, both human and/or animal, should cease to procreate and become extinct. Antinatalism, as an idea, had been around for centuries, though the term it's self is much more recent. In 2006, both Philosopher David Benatar, and writter/artist Théophile de Giraud, seem to have both coined the term simultaneously in their respective works, Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence, and L’Art de Guillotiner Les Procreateurs. Though before 2006, the word did have some previous usage, albeit in very obscure instances, as a way to describe the topic of population control and statistics, Benetar and de Giraud's works seem to have be the first times Antinatalism was used to describe a philosophical position.

In 2011, the term was further popularized through an explosion of interest on Youtube, when it was identified that the subject the Youtube philosopher Inmendham had been talking about for years was indeed, Antinatalism. With the correct vernacular now found, Antinatalism became a popular debate topic on Youtube and elsewhere, and in effect, the Antinatalist movement came to be born.

Since that time, usage of the term has grown year after year, with new books, articles, videos, music and a multitude of other media regularly using the term. Great examples include two highly publicized debate/conversations between Antinatalist philosopher David Benatar and both Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson, both of which can be found here:

Benatar vs Sam Harris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYOQ5XMsbIk

Benatar vs Jordan Peterson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsyZcKUP_-k

And most recently, the subject of Antinatalism made international headlines, when a man by the name of Raphael Samuel announced earlier this year that that he had plans to sue his parents because they violated his consent by giving him life. News reports regarding this story exploded across the globe, and included such examples of coverage in:

Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/world/indian-man-to-sue-his-parents-for-giving-birth-to-him-without-his-consent-wants-to-be-paid-for-his-life?fbclid=IwAR3174NDSKxpOCp6P_I7bai7AqTYrufMCLii6gmPAaofomwmmTA4Rx2lhkQ

The BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47154287

Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6664843/Man-wants-sue-parents-giving-birth-without-consent.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline

The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2019/feb/05/consent-being-born-man-suing-parents-for-giving-birth-to-him

An even larger collection of media centering around this story can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11e8t53Ki9b2zlFdWtSnxEhRwXBhLvyQ-jatB0Zfx6vI/edit

We think that it's high time Antinatalism is recognized as a real word. It's currently not included in any English Dictionary, nor any other English dictionary, and we feel that it has earned it's rightful place as a recognized English philosophical term.

While this campaign is of course for the inclusion of the word Antinatalism into the English Oxford Dictionary, I think that it’s also important to point out that an entire world of words to describe procreative ethics, both pro and con have yet to be recognized. Again, while the focus of this campaign is for Antinatalism, I encourage everyone to also try and have the following words recognized by the Dictionary: WORDS: Antinatalist (Or Anti-Natalist), Anti-Natalism , Antinatalistic , Anti-Natal Anti-Procreation, Natalist , Natalism, Natalistic, Pronatalism , Pronatalist. *Merriam-Webster dictionary has an entry on natalism https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/natalism However the OED still does not. Though I do not expect this page specifically to result in the addition of Antinatalism into the dictionary, I hope that this page can act as a centralized location in raising awareness that Antinatalist is indeed a word, and should be recognized as such in The English Oxford Dictionary, and in all dictionaries. By signing this petition, you can help us to make this a reality. Each signature you provide will send an email directly to the OED in an attempt to plead our case, and you are also more the encouraged to fill out an official submission form on the OED website below.

To submit the word Antinatalism to the Oxford English Dictionary, please visit the link below and fill out the form. You may certainly use whatever information you yourself may wish to enter, but should you need any help, a cheat sheet on what to enter in your submission is included below.: https://global.oup.com/academic/category/dictionaries-and-reference/oedsubform/?cc=us&lang=en&

OED SUBMISSION FORM CHEAT SHEET: WORD or PHRASE illustrated*: Antinatalism Part of Speech*: Noun Reason*: New word Sense number: Pronunciation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mzn0VErCFk Quotation Text: This book engages with analytic philosophy, particularly in its approach to antinatalism and suicide rights. Title of source: Every Cradle Is a Grave Type of material: Book Year of publication*: 2014 Further details: 21/11/2014 Nine-Banded Books Author (s): Sarah Perry Translator (s): None Editor (s): Location of quotation within the source: page 14 Identifier: ISBN-10: 0989697290 ISBN-13: 978-0989697293 Your name:*: Your email address*: Your institution: Further details: The definition of Antinatalism is: ‘Antinatalism, or anti-natalism, is a philosophical stance that assigns a negative value to birth.’ The term anti(-)natalism was popularized after David Benatar's book Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence (OUP, 2006). The term antinatalism became gradually more popular during last ten years https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=antinatalism especially after True Detective (HBO) series of which its protagonist Rust Cohle is an antinatalist. Further popularization has occurred due to a rise of Antinatalist communities on the internet, (Most especially Youtube.) over the last 7 years. The term can be found existing in several different forms - Antinatalism, Antinatalist, Antinatalistic, Anti-Natalism or Anti-Natalist. Other key pieces of evidence of the term being used can be found here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/antinatalism-people-think-world-earth-better-off-if-humans-not-exist-humankind-extinct-a7565591.html

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z4ndze/the-anti-childbirth-advocates-who-say-were-all-better-off-dead

The Antinatalism Magazine: https://www.amazon.com/Antinatalism-Magazine-2-Andreas-M%C3%B6ss/dp/1730717314/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Antinatalism+Magazine&qid=1565238903&s=gateway&sr=8-1

According to Google Book Ngram Viewer, Antinatalism and its derivative forms (including, anti-natalism, antinatalist, anti-natalist) appear around 0.01 to 0.1 times in 1 million words in the corpus of English language. 0.01 to 0.1 times in 1 million words frequency in the corpus corresponds to Band 3 of the Oxford English Dictionary. Perhaps Anti-natalism could be an entry (as a standalone entry or sub-entry on natalism) as it (using hyphen between anti and natalism) is the style that Oxford University Press (OUP) uses, but the corpus (according to Ngram Viewer) indicates Antinatalism or Antinatalist is the more frequent/prevalent form. Antinatalism could be the main or sub- entry as well. Natalism is not an entry in OED. However, Natalism is an entry in Merriam-Webster Dictionary https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/natalism Although OED can include Antinatalism as a sub-entry of Natalism, I strongly recommend to include antinatalism as a standalone entry, as Google Trends indicates that Antinatalism is more frequently searched word than Natalism on Google. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=natalism,antinatalism

Please share this page around anywhere you can, and get people to sign! Whether you are an Antinatalist or not, and even if you are someone who finds the concept abhorrent, it's becoming increasingly hard to deny that Antinatalism is indeed a word in the English language, and a growing movement that deserves to be recognized as such. We Antinatalists believe that a tremendous about of harm can be prevented by putting the rights of the unborn first, and recognizing that coming into existence is always a harm. Achieving a recognition of Antinatalism as a true word, we believe, is an important step in helping the rest of the world understand this.