Children Quote by David Benatar

““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, I think that there could be much less suffering and yet procreation would remain unacceptable.””

David Benatar

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Children Faith

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“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

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

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“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

On my view there is no net benefit to coming into existence and thus coming into existence is never worth its costs.

David Benatar

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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

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“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

I am under no illusions. My position, no matter how clearly stated, is likely to be misunderstood.

David Benatar

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“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

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“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

“Now it might be suggested that cloning is sometimes worse because, where it is done for the sake of the person cloned, it is also an act of narcissism. The being cloned wants a physical replica of himself. Thus the clone is treated as a means to the narcissistic ends of the person cloned. Now there might indeed be some…

David Benatar

“Those who do indeed decide to have a child might do so for any number of reasons, but among these reasons cannot be the interests of the potential child. One can never have a child for that child's sake. That much should be apparent to everybody, even those who reject the stronger view for which I argue in this book-that…

David Benatar

“Parents with dependents are somehow thought to count for more. If, for example, there is some scarce resource—a donor kidney perhaps—and of the two…

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It doesnt seem to me strange that children should like the macabre, the sensational, and the forbidden.

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Let children support their parents or be imprisoned.

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My embarrassing confession is that my father is a 'Camelot: The Musical' obsessive. So as a child, when we were going to visit relatives…

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I have many who keep me going, I am very fortunate in this sense. There is nothing like a child who knows more about…

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My school was one of the most beautiful places a child can grow up in. You are surrounded by nature - cats, dogs, birds…

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A lesser complaint: hair extensions. There are moments on 'All My Children' when half the women actors, young and old, seem to be afflicted…

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As a child, I had a lot of older gay men taking care of me. There's a trust there. I feel like little girls and old gay men together - there's a safety. They make a shield from all of the bad things they've experienced in the world. They make a home together. There are no songs about that. I…

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Children Quote by David Benatar

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