Antinatalism

Antinatalism or anti-natalism is a family of philosophical views that are critical of reproduction — they consider coming into existence as bad or deem procreation as immoral. Antinatalists thus argue that humans should abstain from having children.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] Antinatalist views are not necessarily limited only to humans but may encompass all sentient creatures, arguing that coming into existence is a harm for sentient beings in general.^[6]^{: 2–3, 163}^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]

There are various reasons why antinatalists believe reproduction is problematic. The most common arguments for antinatalism include that life entails inevitable suffering, death is inevitable, and that humans are born without their consent—no one chooses whether or not they come into existence. Additionally, although some people may turn out to be happy, this is not guaranteed, so to procreate is to gamble with another person's suffering. There is also an axiological asymmetry between good and bad things in life, such that coming into existence is always a harm, which is known as Benatar's asymmetry argument.

^ Cite error: The named reference Akerma2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Coates2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Kutas2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Starzyński2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Morioka2021a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Benatar2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Metzinger2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Chomański2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Zandbergen2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Vinding2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Akerma2021-1] Cite error: The named reference Akerma2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Coates2014-2] Cite error: The named reference Coates2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Kutas2020-3] Cite error: The named reference Kutas2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Starzyński2020-4] Cite error: The named reference Starzyński2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Morioka2021a-5] Cite error: The named reference Morioka2021a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Benatar2006-6] Cite error: The named reference Benatar2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Metzinger2021-7] Cite error: The named reference Metzinger2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Chomański2021-8] Cite error: The named reference Chomański2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Zandbergen2021-9] Cite error: The named reference Zandbergen2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Vinding2017-10] Cite error: The named reference Vinding2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]