Youth from the perspective of an anti-natalist.

Imagine looking out, over an empty playground. Nothing but the melancholy swing-set gently moving in the warm summers breeze. When a lonesome child comes into view and begins to swing back and forth. Looking from your office building, where you work fruitlessly for hours upon hours, the same routine constantly. You may not need to imagine such a scenario, you may live it. But I digress, you are looking out, over the playground; at the single child, contemplating your own existence, when a thought suddenly strikes you. “One day, I will die” A very solemn thought, almost as melancholy as the lonely swing-set. But your attention turns back to the child, and a similar thought enters your mind. “One day, he will die” This is ultimately true, both of you, will eventually pass away, peacefully? Maybe. Suffering, most probably.

David Benatar cites the statistics of death:

more than fifteen million people are thought to have died from natural disasters in the last 1,000 years,

approximately 20,000 people die every day from hunger,

an estimated 840 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition,

between 541 ce and 1912, it is estimated that over 102 million people succumbed to plague,

the 1918 influenza epidemic killed 50 million people,

11 million people die every year from infectious diseases,

malignant neoplasms take more than a further 7 million lives each year,

approximately 3.5 million people die every year in accidents,

approximately 56.5 million people died in 2001, that is more than 107 people per minute,

before the twentieth century over 133 million people were killed in mass killings,

in the first 88 years of the twentieth century 170 million (and possibly as many as 360 million) people were shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed, or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hanged, bombed, or killed in any other of the myriad ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners,

there were 1.6 million conflict-related deaths in the sixteenth century, 6.1 million in the seventeenth century, 7 million in the eighteenth, 19.4 million in the nineteenth, and 109.7 million in the twentieth,

war-related injuries led to 310,000 deaths in 2000,

about 40 million children are maltreated each year,

more than 100 million currently living women and girls have been subjected to genital cutting,

815,000 people are thought to have committed suicide in 2000 [55] (currently it is estimated that someone commits suicide every 40 seconds, more than 800,000 people per year). D. Benatar, Better… , op. cit., pp. 6-7. D. Benatar, Better… , op. cit., pp. 88-92. International Association for Suicide Prevention, World Suicide Prevention Day. The Wikipedia page.



Spend some time, reading over those statistics, especially how many children are mistreated, each and every year. Forty million, that is larger than the population of Australia. These children, are brought into the world without consent. These children are born, not of their own volition and they suffer for it. Perhaps it may be considered a ‘cop-out’ to state that, the only way to prevent the suffering of humanity, is to curtail the production of said humanity. But this is not a ‘cop-out’ suggestion, it is quite a beautiful suggestion.

The philosopher Jan Narveson argues thus:

1. There is no moral obligation to produce a child even if we could be sure that it will be very happy throughout his life.

2.There is a moral obligation not to produce a child if it can be foreseen that it will be unhappy.

Narveson comes to the conclusion:

3. In general – if it can be foreseen neither that the child will be unhappy nor that it will bring disutility upon others – there is no duty to have or not to have a child.

One could then argue that regardless of whether a child would be happy, or unhappy, the most moral choice would be to not produce a child, as it would be impossible to discern the happiness of something that has yet to be. Therefore, instead of primarily focusing upon the well-being of something that isn’t, the focus can be directed to the well-being of that which is.

According to the list of children within orphanages, compiled by Orphan Hope International the current amount of children within orphanages is approximately “between 143 million and 210 million”

The article goes on to state:

“According to data released in 2003 as many as eight million boys and girls around the world live in institutional care. Some studies have found that violence in residential institutions is six times higher than violence in foster care, and that children in group care are almost four times more likely to experience sexual abuse than children in family based care.”

And implements further statistics on children currently residing in orphanages:

Every day 5,760 more children become orphans

Approximately 250,000 children are adopted annually, but…

Each year 14, 505, 000 children grow up as orphans and age out of the system by age sixteen

Each day 38,493 orphans age out

Every 2.2 seconds another orphan ages out with no family to belong to and no place to call home

Studies have shown that 10% – 15% of these children commit suicide before they reach age eighteen

These studies also show that 60% of the girls become prostitutes and 70% of the boys become hardened criminals

Another study reported that of the 15,000 orphans aging out of state-run institutions every year, 10% committed suicide, 5,000 were unemployed, 6,000 were homeless and 3,000 were in prison within three years…

An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked every year; (THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2005)

2 million children, the majority of them girls, are sexually exploited in the multibillion-dollar commercial sex industry. (THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2005)

Would it not be more morally sound, to focus the attention to the children which have spent years in practically capitulation? Instead of fretting, and concerning oneself with what emerges from the womb of a female. The unfortunate amount of suffering which occurs on a regular basis, is heartbreaking. Yet there are still people who would care to refuse the rights of women, and men, to implement the use of contraceptives, and birth control. These (Mostly religious) individuals care not for what occurs to the child, once it has departed from the womb, so long as the mother/father do not act against the religiously instated regulations.

For what possible reason, would producing a child; which may come to be: miserable, abused, abandoned or even deceased, benefit society? Surely if attention was directed to those which already exist, there would be a significant decrease in suffering. Perhaps even an increase in technology and scientific advancements.

Without the need to care about producing new life when there is a crisis of overpopulation, humanity may finally reach it’s peak, before gracefully coming to it’s beautiful conclusion after the final human passes away. Filled with extensive knowledge and a mind full of memories. Or suffer horribly, writhing in antagonizing pain for the final few days of its life. Either way, the suffering ends after that, nature reclaims what humanity sought to steal. Things return to the time prior to the virus of humanity. The next stage of life may continue.

Imagine yourself, sitting on a sun-scorched beach, the last remnants of humanity, seated beside you; the cure for cancer, is no longer necessary, natural selection reclaims its power. The sun is slowly setting over a red horizon, the water, silently splashing at your worn soles. All that can be known, is. Your white hair, wispy and scarce, the cool beverage in your hand, almost empty. Knowing that you were one of the last, the final hurrah of ages gone by.

Would that not be beautiful?