“ “When the facts are incontrovertible and the conclusions inescapable; when success could bring a vast improvement in the welfare and happiness of millions; and when the penalty of failure is global disaster: surely humanity will want to collaborate and make sure that sanity prevails. ...maybe it is time that instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, we should control the population to ensure the survival of the environment.”
—Sir David Attenborough
I can’t stand it when anyone (though it’s guys, in particular) gets all righteous whenever I reveal that I intend to never have children. They get that attitude like “Oh ho ho, you’ll change your mind when you get older. Raising children is a wonderful experience. I know more about you and how you wish to live your life than you do. One day, you’ll change your beliefs just because society will put pressure on you to do so; plus, you’re a woman. Your purpose in life is to bear children and help contribute to the ever-increasing human population.”
I’m a proud member of VHEMT. It’s insulting to imply that I’m going to change my perspective just because of what YOU think my femininity entails.
“The decision to have a child, or one more child, or yet another child may seem to be a personal one—a choice about how many diapers you want to change in the short term versus how many Mother’s Day cards you hope to receive later on. But to see it in these terms alone is to be [...] selfish. [...] it’s hard to argue [...] that the decision to have a child is an ethical one. When we set the size of our families, we are, each in our own small way, determining how the world of the future will look. And we’re doing this not just for ourselves and our own children; we’re doing it for everyone else’s children, too. ”
—Elizabeth Kolber, The case against kids: is procreation immoral?
La decisione di avere un bambino, o un altro bambino, o ancora un altro bambino può sembrare personale… una scelta su quanti pannolini vuoi cambiare nel breve periodo contro quante cartoline per la Festa della Mamma speri di ricevere più in là. Ma vederla soltanto in questi termini è essere […] egoisti. […] è difficile sostenere […] che la decisione di avere un figlio sia etica. Quando decidiamo la dimensione delle nostre famiglie, stiamo, ciascuno nel suo piccolo, determinando come apparirà il futuro del mondo. E lo stiamo facendo non solo per noi e per i nostri bambini; lo stiamo facendo anche per i bambini di tutti gli altri.
