25 January 2021,
People have often believed in order to survive, they need to re-product, to give birth to as many kids as possible so the bloodline continues to exist, some, think that having kids, especially in Islamic countries, is meant to save the heritage of the family: name, reputation, and bloodline. It is as well believed that procreation is done for God: ‘’ We are born to praise God, to work for God, and die for God’’ as I mentioned, each has its own believes regarding this matter, as well as there, are some groups of people who believe that giving birth to an innocent soul is a certain type of damnation, pain, and torture, and a selfish deed. And that is what antinatalism’s concept supports, it assigns a negative value to birth.
The antinatalist movement, or should I say policy, re-appeared in China around the late 20th century, specifically 1987 (it’s not the first time that this concept appears in the world), This was encouraged rather forcefully by the Chinese government, forcing women to have abortions if they already had a child. Yet this isn’t the goal of antinatalism, it is more about having no children in the first place, using all precautions possible, vasectomy and female sterilization included.
Some of the earliest formulations of the idea come from Ancient Greece: South African philosopher David Benatar quotes the Greek tragedian Sophocles and the text of Ecclesiastes in his book Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence. Buddhist tutoring dating back to 400 BCE state: “Oblivious of the suffering to which life is subject, man begets children, and is thus the cause of old age and death. If he would only realize what suffering he would add to by his act, he would desist from the procreation of children; and so stop the operation of old age and death”. Therefore, the sentiments at the heart of antinatalism have been around for a long time.
Adherents of this philosophy (antinatalists) view life not as a miracle but as a resource guzzler on an already over-burdened planet. This argument arises most often in relation to the climate crisis: people are worried about bringing children into a world threatened by rising seas, mass displacement, resource limitations. While other reasons lead people to embrace this ideology, such as a will to reduce suffering, the absence of a child’s consent to being born and breaking away from the forced obligation to carry on one’s lineage.
It is no surprise that this movement has a wide turnout, something we will discuss furthermore in our next article, we must first understand how this affects the ones that are already born, yet against this ‘’procreation’’. there have been several cases were kids, sued their parents for giving birth to them, claiming it was not their choice to live such painful life in such a cruel world, the concept goes in reverse as well, some anti-natalists live a happy life but don’t find it fair for one to oblige someone to exist.
Some simply don’t accept the burden. So how about you? Are you happy that you were born or do you have another opinion on the matter?
Stay tuned for our next article regarding anti-natalists, and antinatalism.