Sunday, July 4, 2010

To have or not to

A BBC correspondent’s desire to have another child, a fourth one, led to a rather passionate discussion amongst us on if we as the plunderers of mother nature have lost our right to be a mother, biological one, ourselves. The reason that the lady in question gave was that she loved babies. Is that so inadequate a reason?

I feel that given the available resources, which are different in different countries, governments can provide a broad guideline as to what is a manageable average number that a family should aim for. Beyond that it is everyone’s personal choice if one wants to have one, more or none as long as one can provide them a decent upbringing.

It doesn’t need the sharpest of brains to figure out that the earth would definitely be a better place if we just remained animals all along, with no health care that unnaturally supports us to live longer, no buildings to live in, no books to read, no vehicles to travel, no electricity, no clean water to drink etc. etc. Basically everything that is a manifestation of our difference from animals comes at a cost to mother nature. Can we strive to sustain everything that makes our life perfect but take away the right to satisfy a basic human desire to have our own children?

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