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I thought I’d give my own take because it’s idiosyncratic. I thought about this quite a bit because I tend to go back-and-forth. Let’s just say I place a value on having kids at or about zero so it’s neither a net negative or positive for me personally. The question then turns to what about the effect on everyone else including the hypothetical child. My main concern is that I have some aggression which is genetic. I enjoy the hell out of my life but I know it’s there and it’s obviously a source of potential problems. I’ve never did down to genetic factors in combination with environmental stuff but I know the genetic load is there. So my child could be fine or more or less violent than me or conflicted. I cant know in advance because of the stochastic nature of genetics.. I’m not very violent but I can be. Taking all this together I decided for myself: probably no. My main concern is having a child that’s more violent than me or conflicted and getting them to a situation where they can’t solve it. Then they ask me why they were created when I knew this could’ve happened and could’ve prevented it. Basically I don’t wanna be put in the position where I’m having to tell the kid yeah I knew your life could be hosed up because this but I decided hey what the hell it might be great. To put myself in the kids situation I would look like kind of an idiot for not anticipating the harm that could’ve caused and foregoing. Basically my nightmare situation is a kid that says dad I feel like I have to kill a bunch of people I can’t kill myself and I know it’s hosed up but do it anyway. Then I would say well son you know I had an inkling that this might happen but gosh I just hoped to the stars that we’d be lucky enough to avoid it but here we are. Essentially I have an egotistical concern not to look like an idiot in that situation. I know this is an unusual take but I felt it might help illustrate how this is a very three-dimensional moral problem here where intersecting with a person‘s perspective and experience gives you wildly different results to the moral question. I guess I see it as less a question of suffering and more a question of taking personal responsibility for the risk you take. I don’t reproduce for the same reason I don’t keep highly enriched uranium locked up in my carport shed with a zip tie. I sort of take the equation apart from suffering because I can’t estimate the true value of suffering for different situations but I can estimate risk. Even if I get lucky on the genetic side and my kids normal what if I don’t love them? Creating a sensitive sentient life form that goes I love you daddy and then just....not feeling anything in return. I can’t imagine how devastating that would be.
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Apr 4, 2021 23:41
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Puppy Galaxy posted:Your greatest fear is not that you have a kid who kills a bunch of people, but that you have a kid who kills a bunch of people and you look like an idiot? No I would say it’s the same fear basically.
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Apr 5, 2021 03:42
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