The Importance Of Procreation

In this paper I argue that procreation in a world with limited resources is morally impermissible. I agree with Thomas Young’s argument that overconsumption is morally equivalent, or no morally worse, than procreation. Excessive use of resources is considered morally wrong and as children present an excessive additional use of resources, it follows logically that production of children is unacceptable. For the sake of this argument, like Young’s, we refer to the consumption habits of Americans. It is our moral duty not to inflict more damage on the earth than is reasonable for a singular individual. By introducing new life to the world, we unreasonably multiply our resource use and damage to the planet, which is in direct opposition to …show more content…
In that case, the end of the human race is incredibly moral. Humanity has destroyed this planet more than any other creature, and led to the loss of life of countless other creatures. We would consider it irrational for a murderer to be considered more worthy of life than his victim, simply because the murderer was better able to win a fight. The world would, undeniably, be a better place without the continued impact of humans, the ultimate murderers and destroyers of other species. If anything, procreation is worse for the planet than even if the current (and theoretically last) generation of humans each had the global impact of a family of four. Procreation results in an exponentially continuing destruction of the planet, whereas overconsumption limited to a single generation has a definitive ~80 year endpoint. If one opts to use a utilitarian argument to object to my argument, they must acknowledge that the end of humanity is actually the best possible good. Therefore, the above argument