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Antinatalism

Updated: 12/11/2025, 2:30:08 PM Wikipedia source

Antinatalism or anti-natalism is the philosophical value judgment that procreation is unethical or unjustifiable. Antinatalists thus argue that humans should abstain from making children. Some antinatalists consider coming into existence to always be a serious harm. Their views are not necessarily limited only to humans but may encompass all sentient creatures, arguing that coming into existence is a serious harm for sentient beings in general. There are various reasons why antinatalists believe human reproduction is problematic. The most common arguments for antinatalism include that life entails inevitable suffering, death is inevitable, and humans are born without their consent (that is to say, they cannot choose whether or not they come into existence). Additionally, although some people may turn out to be happy, this is not guaranteed, so to procreate is to gamble with another person's suffering. There is also an axiological asymmetry between good and bad things in life, such that coming into existence is always a harm, which is known as Benatar's asymmetry argument. Antinatalism as a philosophical concept is to be distinguished from antinatalist policies employed by some countries (governmental population control measures). In antinatalist population policy, it is not always implied that coming into existence is a universal problem and is an ever-present harm to the one whose existence was started. There exists a taxonomy that divides the so-called "antiprocreative" (at times called antinatalist) thought into four major branches: childfreeness, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT), efilism (an ideology that advocates for extreme promortalism and forced extinction), and antinatalism itself. Only the latter one is philosophical antinatalism per se, meeting the definition of philosophical antinatalism and having no other features on top of that, whereas the first three items can only be deemed antinatalistic in the sense that they oppose the alleged duty to procreate.

Tables

· Arguments › Negative utilitarianism
Produce the child
Produce the child
OutcomeDecision
Produce the child
Child will be more or less happy
No duty fulfilled or violated
Child will be more or less unhappy
Duty violated
Do not produce the child
Do not produce the child
OutcomeDecision
Do not produce the child
Child will be more or less happy
No duty fulfilled or violated
Child will be more or less unhappy
Duty fulfilled
OutcomeDecision
Child will be more or less happy
Child will be more or less unhappy
Produce the child
No duty fulfilled or violated
Duty violated
Do not produce the child
No duty fulfilled or violated
Duty fulfilled
· Arguments › David Benatar's arguments › Asymmetry between good and bad things
1. Presence of pain (Bad)
1. Presence of pain (Bad)
Scenario A (X exists)
1. Presence of pain (Bad)
Scenario B (X never exists)
3. Absence of pain (Good)
2. Presence of pleasure (Good)
2. Presence of pleasure (Good)
Scenario A (X exists)
2. Presence of pleasure (Good)
Scenario B (X never exists)
4. Absence of pleasure (Not bad)
Scenario A (X exists)
Scenario B (X never exists)
1. Presence of pain (Bad)
3. Absence of pain (Good)
2. Presence of pleasure (Good)
4. Absence of pleasure (Not bad)

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