By INYOURFACENEWYORKER
Added: Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:42:40 UTC

At the risk of beating a dead horse, this is going to be another Dr. Jack Kevorkian-inspired discussion.

The other day I found and listened to an interview with Dr. Kevorkian. At one point during the interview, he said something to the effect that he wished people would just stop mindlessly popping out babies. The interviewer said something along the lines of, "Well, if everybody stopped having babies, then the human race would go extinct." Kevorkian's response: "What's wrong with that? Are you making it your life's mission to prevent human extinction?"

What's wrong indeed? And why make that one's mission? It's the same mentality, I think that people have when wanting to ban abortion, stem-cell research, and euthanasia: life for the sake of life. I had a similar conversation with my mother recently in which she made the same argument, that if everybody stopped having babies then the human race would go extinct. I said, "I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing." Her immediate response was, "Oh, I think it is."

Don't get me wrong: I don't want the human race to go extinct (of course it will eventually), but let's have a little thought experiment. Let's imagine we have two choices. One is that we continue what we're doing and destroy the world's resources and go extinct after protracted suffering. The other is that everybody in the world agrees to stop procreating, and the human race goes extinct in a peaceful manner. Of course, I realize that the second option could never be implemented. That's why it's a thought experiment. But of the two if it were possible to make a practical choice? Take your pick.

I suspect that many people would reflexively pick the first option, despite the suffering involved, simply because it's more of an "involuntary" extinction. But why? Why is an involuntary, protracted extinction rife with suffering better than a peaceful extinction? It's because of the vacuous sentimentality that many of us reflexively feel, to have life for the sake of life, and as much of it as possible.

Of course, in a perfect world only the people who really wanted kids would have them and every kid would be planned, but that's just as unpractical as the peaceful extinction option.

There is one other option that I haven't mentioned, and it ain't pretty, and I sure as hell wouldn't advocate it...

Let's discuss.

Julie

TAGGED: CRITICAL THINKING