“It is not the case that one can create new people on the assumption that if they are not pleased to have come into existence they can simply kill themselves. Once somebody has come into existence and attachments with that… — David Benatar Copy Share Image
“There’s such a thing as chronic pain, but there’s no such thing as chronic pleasure. ... For an existing person, the presence of bad things is bad and the presence of good things is good. But compare that with a scenario in which that person never existed—then, the absence of the bad would be good, but the absence of the… — David Benatar Copy Share
Creating new people, by having babies, is so much a part of human life that it is rarely thought even to require a justification.… — David Benatar Copy Share Image
“There is one kind of exception: those who believe that the world is too horrible a place into which to bring children. Such people believe that there happens to be too much bad in the world to make procreation acceptable. That belief must be right. I disagree only in one way with those who advance it. Unlike (most of) them,… — David Benatar Copy Share
“For instance, since none of us lives until age 240, people tend not to think that failing to reach that age makes one’s life go less well. However, most people regard it as tragic when somebody dies at forty (at least if that person’s quality of life was comparatively good). But why should a death at ninety not be tragic… — David Benatar Copy Share
On my view there is no net benefit to coming into existence and thus coming into existence is never worth its costs. — David Benatar Copy Share Image
Coming into existence is always bad for those who come into existence. In other words, although we may not be able to say of… — David Benatar Copy Share Image
“There is a further (non-distributional) consideration that can affect an assessment of a life’s quality. Arguably, once a life reaches a certain threshold of badness (considering both the amount and the distribution of its badness), no quantity of good can outweigh it, because no amount of good could be worth that badness. It is just this assessment that Donald (‘Dax’)… — David Benatar Copy Share
I am under no illusions. My position, no matter how clearly stated, is likely to be misunderstood. — David Benatar Copy Share Image
“Life's big questions are big in the sense that they are momentuous. However, contrary to appearances, they are not big in the sense of… — David Benatar Copy Share Image
“Bringing people into existence as well as failing to bring people into existence can be regretted. However, only bringing people into existence can be regretted for the sake of the person whose existence was contingent on our decision. This is not because those who are not brought into existence are indeterminate. Instead it is because they never exist. We can… — David Benatar Copy Share
“Now it might be suggested that cloning is sometimes worse because, where it is done for the sake of the person cloned, it is… — David Benatar Copy Share Image
“Those who do indeed decide to have a child might do so for any number of reasons, but among these reasons cannot be the… — David Benatar Copy Share Image
