2025/09/01 by Elke Elisabeth Schmidt · 1 voice
Medicine · Arts and Humanities · Neuroscience · #Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare #Philosophical Ethics and Theory #Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations
paper · doi:10.1007/s11406-025-00911-z
openalex publication_date 2025/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/11/15 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract In contrast to antinatalist positions, I will pose the question of whether it might not only be ethically permissible, but even imperative to have children. I will set out an argument that there is indeed a pro tanto duty to procreate, which I understand as a specification of the duty to help others. To begin with, I will present a fictitious scenario to develop the question of whether there could be a duty to procreate (1). Before presenting my argument in detail, I will set out a number of presuppositions my argument does not require (2). I will then present the argument from the last humans (3). Since it mainly refers to the suffering of the last human beings as a factum brutum , my argument has the advantage of having only very modest presuppositions and being independent of any specific deontological or consequentialist conceptions of ethics. Finally, I will address at length several objections, including the claim that the argument presented has no relevance to our lives (4).