The desire to have children and the “antinatalists”; understand the concept

Lately, there is a growing wave of women who don't want to be mothers. The reasons are diverse: fear of losing freedom, the need to focus on a career, financial concerns, among others. In addition, there are also those who preach that not putting a new life into the world is the best choice for everyone. An example of this is Isabel, 28 years old, who, interviewed by Weiss, said she is “antinatalist” and considers it wrong to bring people into the world because they will suffer.

And there are many concerns around motherhood. The climate issue is one of the most curious, as many women decide not to have children because they believe that the planet is already overcrowded, and that if that doesn't is controlled now, in the future there may be a lack of resources or be responsible for climate changes that directly affect the quality of life in the Earth.

“Many people think having children is their duty, but for me it's just the opposite. I believe it is my responsibility not to have children as part of a collective effort to respond to the unsustainable size of the world's population," wrote one Huffington Post user. Apart from this concern, there is still that with the psychological health of the child, who may suffer prejudices, experience financial difficulties or live in a world that is not ready for receive it.

Research confirms “anti-natalist” wave

Several surveys point out that the desire to have children is decreasing in recent times, and not only among young people – a survey carried out by the University of Bath shows that 39% of Gen Z prefer not to have children due to climate chaos – but also among adults, as the desire to have children dropped by 17% after the onset of pandemic.

But it's not just the environmental and psychological issues of future children that weigh on young people's decision to have children or not. Another survey, this time carried out by Funcas, shows that, among millennials who do not want to have children (12%), 70% answered that they do not want to have children because children “cause a lot of problems”. Already 67% of respondents said that children “limit free time”, and 64% claimed that “it takes a lot of income” to raise them.

Among men, the desire to have children has also declined. In the US, vasectomy clinics are getting more and more clients, and they still use slogans to attract men to the process, such as: “One small cut for man, one giant leap for mankind” or “A vasectomy is an act of love”.

However, for those who are sterilized very young, this can be a problem later on. According to a 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) report, 20% of women who opted for sterilization at a very young age regretted it after a few years.

Decision to have children

As we said at the beginning of the article, there is a movement that condemns the decision to have children as a selfish act. Of course, there are selfish reasons for having a child, such as having a caregiver in the future, just thinking about your will and ignoring any consequences of this act, as well as many others. It is also obvious that we have to be aware of thinking about the conditions in which we are going to place the child, but it seems too radical to judge everyone who chooses to have children as selfish.

To defend these people who choose to have children, we have Ross Douthat, who published an article entitled “The case of one more child. Because big families will save humanity.” In an excerpt, he argues that humanity only exists today because, even in difficult situations, people reproduced. “Humanity persisted because people had children in radically difficult circumstances: amid hunger, war and misery on a scale we cannot even imagine,” he points out.

He still argues that a low birth rate brings damage to economic development and greater inequality for the world. And, for the author, the most commendable reason for having a child is the fact of “living for someone other than yourself”, which, according to him, refutes the whole idea of ​​selfishness in motherhood.

Douthat also defends large families, because, according to him, it is “a great school of ecological awareness”, since within the family there will be reuse of objects and resources from brother to brother. Many bloggers who share the routine of their large families agree with his statement.

While for many, children mean a worsening environment, for others, they can be great motivation for personal evolution. This, consequently, would imply an environmental improvement, as no parent wants to leave their child in a bad world.