The nuclear option

DO NOT WANT

Sometimes you don't notice that a topic is on your mind until it emerges in conversation. For instance, the topic of procreation--more specifically, the topic of vasectomies--came up for me at least three times.

This is not to say that I am planning on getting a vasectomy as soon as possible. The option is on the table for the future, but going for the snip as an emotional young man seems ill-advised. Regardless, I'm sure it kept coming up because I've been thinking about the decision to (or not to) have children.


It will come as no surprise to those who know me that I don't want children. I'm not someone who often couches things in ethical terms, but given my worldview, it would be 'wrong' for me to have kids. Human civilization is either headed off a cliff or is currently in the process of falling from one. I expect mankind's future history to comprise a series of increasingly severe cataclysms that culminate in a radical population reduction, or perhaps even complete extinction. This is not, as they say, a future that I want for my kids. I can easily spare them these experiences by never having them in the first place. On top of that, the apocalypse becomes more imminent with each extra human we pack onto the Earth's surface, so I lessen the chances that civilization will self-immolate by not breeding.

Of course, I also despise children and wouldn't make a very good dad, which makes the decision-making process considerably easier for me. It also allows me to condemn what I consider to be irresponsible childbearing: when people have more kids than their material means allow them to support or control. After all, who wants a swarm of dirty little rugrats screeching away in the subway while their overworked mom does nothing to restrain them?

But my clear-cut ethical analysis becomes blurrier when I try to evaluate childbearing among people I'm closer to. For instance, my cousin and his wife--both smart, capable professionals in their thirties--just had their first baby. On one hand, I think the kid is probably in for a rough life down the line. On the other hand, I understand that the desire to procreate is as naturally powerful as the desire to eat or sleep, and not everyone has my dim view of the future or my aversion to dealing with children.

And thus my own vasectomy dilemma. I understand that I might change my mind about wanting kids, but I also feel that my current reasons for not wanting them are compelling and that my thinking on the subject may be muddier when biological clocks are going off around me left and right. Ultimately, I like keeping my options open more than I like restricting them, so it's not a decision I'm going to make any time soon. I'll feel pretty stupid looking back on this post in fifteen years if I'm up to my eyeballs in my own spawn, though.