Antinatalism: A Moral Perspective
So far I have only covered the global and environmental effects of overpopulation. Anti-natalism, or the anti-birth movement, also known as the voluntary human extinction movement, also encompasses moral perspectives.
Moral #1: Life is essentially suffering and any parent who cannot guarantee their child a pain-free life is doing disservice to his or her biological child by bringing them into this world.
Moral #2: People cannot guarantee that their child will be similar to them in any fashion, even with 50% of their DNA. When the odds are stacked up against you, why give birth? A vegan can give birth to a carnivore as much as a leader can give birth to a mass murderer.
Moral #3: Freedom is an ideal. We do not live in an ideal world. We cannot guarantee human rights, safety, security, privilege and freedom from fear and pain to any child. A child born into poverty will suffer terribly. Likewise, a child born into riches may not know how to manage his wealth and may not be free from debt.
Moral #4: We live in a world where euthanasia, suicide and even abortion in cases of critical health in some cities are condemned to be crimes. With so much restriction in our choice of choosing to live, people should be more educated on nipping the problem in the bud and denouncing birth altogether.
Moral #5: We live in a world in constant danger in certain territories and natural disasters. Bringing a child into those territories especially is flat out irresponsible.
Moral #6: We live in a selfish capitalistic society where people step on the toes of others to go forward. The situation will be unfathomable years from now when your biological child is growing up in an ultra-competitive society and may fall victim to depression or suicide. From personal experience, people with children care only for their young and show less empathy to others.
Moral #7: The ego and arrogance of being obsessed with your genetic DNA when there are millions of unloved children out there. Why is adoption a more dreadful word than breeding? Also, why are adoption laws tightly regulated and discriminatory?
Many of the aforementioned moral issues overlap and stem from the greater issue of freedom from fear, pain and a lack of security, safety and rights. If you are no environmentalist and the environmental issues mentioned in my previous posts do not relate to you, the moral perspectives need to be considered in ‘to breed or not to breed?’.