I don't think it's selfish to not want to have children, but it is selfish to have children if you are unhealthy
What about if:
Your brother has low functionism autism
You are an "Extreme Type S" yourself, suggesting that ASD runs in your family
You will probably want to marry another "Extreme Type S", thus intensifying those traits
A common way of analyzing the moral correctness of an action is to consider what would happen if everyone did what it is that you want to do. So, if everyone choose to not have kids (they are expensive and very time consuming); the human race woujld go extinct. Unless you, like Enmos, believe that the human race going extinct would be a good thing, it's selfish to not have children.
Furthermore, there's nothing parents enjoy more than grandchildren. They raised you and see it as your duty to raise the next generation. When or if you decide that you don't want the responsibility and the expense of children, they see you as selfish.
And the problem with that viewpoint is that it is based on an abstract principle
without considering reality. People who do not want kids are vastly outnumbered by people who do.
I do not think the human race should actually go extinct. I think it would be better if there were less of us, though, using up less resources.
By the way, my mother does not see it as my duty to have children. She agrees it would be better if I simply got a puppy like I've always wanted
When or if you decide that you don't want the responsibility and the expense of children
My reasons:
- I'm not mother material. I don't have the normal reactions to things. My niece once told me she was 'upset' because she lost me in a crowded area.
I should have responded with compassion, and apologized, but instead I just thought 'Ugh! Get your horrid, icky emotions away from me!'
Do you really want someone like that having children because
that's what you do? Do you think someone who reacts to a child's display of anguish or vulnerability with intense revulsion should be having some of her own?
- I actually don't LIKE them most of the time. High pitched cries and babbling wear on my nerves.
It is selfish not to have children because it narrows the stream of your family strain ... a stream which took generations of toil and labour from your ancestors to make aflow. But more stupid than selfish is it not to have children for those concerned with the global standing of whatever national, religious, racial, or ethnic group they identify with.
If I were a member of a rapidly dwindling ethnic minority, I would probably have different views about children. I would probably want to have lots of them to increase my group's numbers. As it is, I'm a mixture of English, North Irish, and Arab. Not exactly a rare pedigree that badly needs passing on.
